The former Brazilian president taken into custody after being declared a escape threat

placeholder news image

Jair Bolsonaro has been arrested after authorities determined he posed a concrete flight risk while under house arrest.

The ex-president was sentenced of plotting a armed takeover in last fall and sentenced more than a 27-year term in jail, but he remained under house arrest pending court reviews.

High Court Judge Justice Moraes said the move to detain the elderly politician was a precautionary step after "new facts" were revealed.

This involved seeking to disable his ankle monitor and a invitation to a supporters' gathering that could enable a potential flight.

Court Filing Details Flight Fears

In a paperwork permitting the detention, the magistrate said information from the centre monitoring the former president's confinement suggested the former leader's aim to disable the surveillance device to secure accomplishment in his getaway".

This, it said, would be "facilitated by the chaos caused by the gathering called by his son.

His offspring, his son Flávio, who works as a senator, called for a meeting of his followers near the former president's residence to take place on Saturday night.

Flávio Bolsonaro wrote on online platforms on last Friday: Do you plan to struggle for your homeland, or watch it all from your phone there on your settee? I call on you to battle with us."

He said the demonstration would be so backers could "pray for his physical condition and for the reestablishment of democratic governance in our nation."

Diplomatic Refuge Fears

Part of the magistrate's determination was the potential of his move to foreign missions near the residence, considering that the investigations revealed a history of planning to ask for protection through a diplomatic representation", a announcement said.

The court filing underscores that the United States embassy in the federal district, Brasilia, is situated around approximately 13 kilometers from his dwelling.

International Reactions

The former president's legal troubles have generated frustration from fellow right-wing populist US President Donald Trump, prompting him to implement a half-rate duty on imports of Brazilian goods.

The former president is being kept in a national police facility in Brasilia and will have a imprisonment assessment on Sunday.

Latest Court Petitions

It was only on last Friday that the former president's lawyers asked the Supreme Court to authorize him to complete his entire prison term under home confinement, with digital surveillance.

They also asked that he be permitted to leave his home for medical care, saying he needed frequent medical attention for lung conditions and other ailments.

Details of Guilty Verdict

The former president was convicted of leading a scheme aimed at retaining his authority after he failed to win the national vote to his ideological adversary, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Supreme Court justices said that he had knowledge of a plot which encompassed plans to murder Lula and his vice-presidential running mate, Geraldo Alckmin, and to detain and kill the presiding judge - the High Court judge who has been managing his judicial proceedings.

The plot was stopped because it didn't receive the support of the military leaders. His successor was inaugurated without incident on 1 January 2023.

But a following week, on January 8th, numerous his followers invaded and destroyed public facilities in the capital, Brasília.

The law enforcement stepped in and around 1,500 people were arrested.

The magistrates found that the rioters had been incited by the former president whose scheme, they said, was for the Brazilian military to take action, reestablish control and reinstate his authority.

At the moment, his attorneys called the decades-long sentence "absurdly excessive.

He was also banned from running for public office until twenty-sixty - eight years after the conclusion of his imprisonment.

The former president called the legal proceedings a targeted investigation" and said it was intended to stop him running in the 2026 national vote.

Nathan Lee
Nathan Lee

A tech journalist and digital strategist with over a decade of experience covering emerging technologies and their impact on business and society.