🔗 Share this article

Bolsonaro has been detained after authorities concluded he posed a concrete flight risk while under house arrest.

The one-time leader was found guilty of plotting a military coup in September and given more than a 27-year term in prison, but he was staying under confinement pending legal challenges.

Top Judicial Official Alexandre de Moraes said the move to detain the septuagenarian politician was a preventative measure after recent developments emerged.

This involved attempting to break his tracking device and a summons to a supporters' gathering that could enable a possible escape.

Legal Document Reveals Escape Concerns

In a document approving the custody, Justice Moraes said data from the centre monitoring his home detention suggested the former leader's aim to disable the surveillance device to ensure success in his flight.

This, it said, would be made easier by the chaos caused by the gathering called by his son.

His son, Flávio, who holds office as a congressional representative, called for a assembly of his supporters near the former president's residence to take place on the weekend.

Flávio Bolsonaro wrote on online platforms on Friday: Do you plan to struggle for your homeland, or see it all from your phone there on your couch? I urge you to fight with us."

He said the demonstration would be so backers could offer prayers for his physical condition and for the restoration of democratic rule in our nation."

Diplomatic Refuge Fears

Part of the judge's determination was the potential of the former president's move to embassies near the residence, considering that the inquiries revealed a background of planning to ask for protection through a consular facility", a declaration said.

The legal document emphasizes that the United States embassy in the national capital, Brasilia, is positioned around approximately 13 kilometers from his dwelling.

Worldwide Consequences

The former president's legal troubles have generated frustration from fellow populist conservative United States President Trump, prompting him to enact a 50% tariff on goods coming from Brazil.

Bolsonaro is being kept in a federal law enforcement building in the capital and will undergo a custody hearing on the next day.

Recent Judicial Appeals

It was only on Friday that the ex-leader's attorneys asked the Top Court to authorize him to complete his entire prison term under home confinement, with electronic monitoring.

They also requested that the former president be authorized to leave his home for healthcare, saying he required frequent medical attention for pulmonary infections and other health problems.

Context of Sentencing

Bolsonaro was convicted of orchestrating a scheme aimed at keeping him in power after he was defeated in the presidential race to his political opponent, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Supreme Court justices said that he knew of a scheme which included plans to murder Lula and his VP candidate, Alckmin, and to detain and kill Justice Moraes - the Supreme Court justice who has been managing the former president's case.

The scheme was stopped because it failed to get the backing of the armed forces officials. The current president was inaugurated without issue on 1 January 2023.

But a seven days after, on 8 January, many his followers attacked and damaged official structures in the national capital, Brasília.

The law enforcement stepped in and around fifteen hundred individuals were arrested.

The magistrates found that the protesters had been incited by the former president whose plan, they said, was for the Brazilian military to intervene, bring back stability and bring him back to power.

At the period, the legal team called the over 27-year sentence unreasonably severe".

He was also prohibited from running for public office until twenty-sixty - a decade minus two years after the end of his sentence.

The former president called the legal proceedings a political persecution and said it was intended to stop him participating in the 2026 presidential election.