Jair Bolsonaro has been detained after authorities concluded he posed a serious risk of fleeing while under domestic detention.
The former head of state was sentenced of orchestrating a government overthrow in September and handed more than 27 years in prison, but he remained under house arrest pending legal challenges.
Top Judicial Official the presiding justice said the decision to arrest the septuagenarian politician was a preventative measure after "new facts" were revealed.
This involved seeking to disable his electronic bracelet and a call for a public vigil that could enable a possible escape.
Legal Document Reveals Escape Concerns
In a filing authorising the arrest, the magistrate said information from the centre monitoring his home detention suggested the former leader's plan to remove the tracking monitor to ensure success in his getaway".
This, it said, would be assisted by the disorder caused by the protest called by his son.
His offspring, his son Flávio, who holds office as a senator, called for a assembly of his backers near his father's house to take place on the weekend.
The senator wrote on online platforms on Friday: Do you plan to struggle for your homeland, or observe everything from your phone there on your couch? I invite you to struggle with us."
He said the vigil would be so backers could offer prayers for his health and for the restoration of democratic rule in our land."
Foreign Shelter Risks
Part of Justice Moraes's decision was the chance of his "relocation to diplomatic missions near the home, considering that the probes revealed a record of organizing to ask for protection through a embassy office", a declaration said.
The court filing underscores that the United States embassy in the national capital, Brazil's capital, is positioned around 8 miles from Bolsonaro's home.
Worldwide Consequences
The former president's legal troubles have drawn the ire of fellow populist conservative US President President Trump, causing him to enact a fifty percent tax on goods coming from Brazil.
Bolsonaro is being held in a federal law enforcement building in Brasilia and will undergo a detention review on Sunday.
Recent Legal Requests
It was only on Friday that the his legal team asked the Top Court to allow him to serve his whole jail sentence under domestic detention, with electronic monitoring.
They also requested that he be permitted to depart his residence for medical care, saying he required frequent medical attention for pulmonary infections and other ailments.
Details of Guilty Verdict
Bolsonaro was convicted of orchestrating a plot aimed at keeping him in power after he was defeated in the presidential race to his political opponent, President Lula.
High Court judges said that he knew of a plot which involved plans to kill Lula and his running partner, Geraldo Alckmin, and to imprison and murder Alexandre de Moraes - the High Court judge who has been presiding over his judicial proceedings.
The plot was stopped because it failed to get the endorsement of the army and air force commanders. His successor was inaugurated without incident on the first day of 2023.
But a seven days after, on 8 January, thousands of his followers attacked and damaged official structures in the capital, Brazil's capital.
The police intervened and around 1,500 people were detained.
The magistrates found that the protesters had been provoked by him whose scheme, they said, was for the Brazilian military to take action, restore order and reinstate his authority.
At the time, Bolsonaro's lawyers called the decades-long sentence unreasonably severe".
He was also barred from campaigning for office until the year 2060 - eight years after the end of his sentence.
The former president called the trial a "witch hunt and said it was aimed at blocking him running in the 2026 presidential election.
