🔗 Share this article

Bolsonaro has been arrested after authorities concluded he posed a definite escape threat while under home confinement.

The one-time leader was sentenced of plotting a military coup in the ninth month and given more than a 27-year term in incarceration, but he remained under confinement pending legal challenges.

High Court Judge Justice Moraes said the decision to arrest the septuagenarian politician was a precautionary step after "new facts" emerged.

This included seeking to disable his electronic bracelet and a call for a public vigil that could "allow for a chance to flee".

Legal Document Reveals Flight Fears

In a paperwork permitting the arrest, Justice Moraes said data from the centre monitoring the former president's confinement suggested the ex-president's plan to remove the surveillance device to secure accomplishment in his escape.

This, it said, would be made easier by the chaos caused by the demonstration called by his offspring.

His offspring, his son Flávio, who holds office as a senator, called for a assembly of his followers near his father's house to take place on Saturday night.

His son wrote on online platforms on Friday: "Are you going to fight for your country, or watch it all from your mobile device there on your couch? I urge you to struggle with us."

He said the demonstration would be so backers could "pray for his well-being and for the reestablishment of democratic governance in our country."

Embassy Asylum Concerns

Part of Justice Moraes's ruling was the chance of his move to diplomatic missions near the dwelling, considering that the investigations revealed a history of planning to ask for protection through a consular facility", a statement said.

The judicial paperwork highlights that the American diplomatic mission in the national capital, Brasilia, is positioned around 8 miles from his dwelling.

Global Responses

His judicial problems have provoked anger from fellow conservative nationalist US President Donald Trump, causing him to impose a 50% tariff on goods coming from Brazil.

The former president is being kept in a national police facility in Brazil's capital city and will experience a custody hearing on the following day.

Latest Court Petitions

It was only on the previous day that the former president's lawyers asked the Top Court to permit him to complete his entire prison term under house arrest, with electronic monitoring.

They also asked that the former president be authorized to exit his dwelling for medical care, saying he needed frequent medical attention for pulmonary infections and other illnesses.

Details of Guilty Verdict

The former president was found guilty of leading a plot aimed at retaining his authority after he failed to win the 2022 election to his political opponent, President Lula.

Supreme Court justices said that he knew of a plan which included plans to assassinate Lula and his vice-presidential running mate, Geraldo Alckmin, and to detain and kill Justice Moraes - the Supreme Court justice who has been managing Bolsonaro's trial.

The plot was stopped because it couldn't obtain the support of the armed forces officials. Lula was sworn in without issue on 1 January 2023.

But a following week, on the eighth of January, many his backers stormed and vandalised official structures in the capital, Brasília.

The law enforcement took action and around approximately 1,500 persons were arrested.

The magistrates found that the demonstrators had been provoked by the former president whose strategy, they said, was for the country's army to take action, reestablish control and bring him back to power.

At the period, Bolsonaro's lawyers called the decades-long sentence unreasonably severe".

He was also barred from campaigning for office until the year 2060 - eight years later after the completion of his term.

The one-time head of state called the legal proceedings a political persecution and said it was intended to stop him competing in the 2026 presidential election.