The former Brazilian president taken into custody after being deemed a flight risk

The former Brazilian leader has been detained after authorities found he posed a serious risk of fleeing while under home confinement.

The one-time leader was convicted of planning a armed takeover in last fall and handed more than 27 years in prison, but he remained under confinement pending legal challenges.

High Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes said the action to imprison the 70-year-old politician was a preventative measure after fresh information came to light.

This encompassed seeking to disable his tracking device and a summons to a supporters' gathering that could "allow for a potential flight.

Legal Document Reveals Escape Concerns

In a paperwork permitting the detention, the judge said data from the facility tracking his home detention suggested the one-time head of state's plan to remove the surveillance device to ensure success in his escape.

This, it said, would be "facilitated by the disorder caused by the demonstration called by his child.

His child, Flávio Bolsonaro, who serves as a congressional representative, called for a gathering of his backers near the former president's residence to take place on Saturday evening.

The senator wrote on social media on last Friday: Do you plan to struggle for your nation, or see it all from your mobile device there on your sofa? I call on you to struggle with us."

He said the gathering would be so supporters could seek divine intervention for his physical condition and for the return of democracy in our nation."

Embassy Asylum Concerns

Part of the magistrate's decision was the chance of Bolsonaro's transfer to diplomatic missions near the dwelling, considering that the probes revealed a record of arranging to ask for protection through a consular facility", a announcement said.

The judicial paperwork emphasizes that the American diplomatic mission in the capital, Brasilia, is situated around 13km from the former president's residence.

International Reactions

His judicial problems have provoked anger from fellow right-wing populist United States President Donald Trump, causing him to enact a 50% tariff on goods coming from Brazil.

He is being held in a national police facility in the capital and will have a detention review on the following day.

Latest Court Petitions

It was only on Friday that the former president's lawyers asked the Top Court to authorize him to fulfill his full incarceration period under domestic detention, with electronic monitoring.

They also asked that he be allowed to depart his residence for medical treatment, saying he demanded frequent medical attention for respiratory ailments and other illnesses.

Context of Sentencing

He was found guilty of orchestrating a conspiracy aimed at maintaining his control after he was defeated in the presidential race to his ideological adversary, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Supreme Court justices said that he knew of a plot which encompassed plans to assassinate his opponent and his VP candidate, Alckmin, and to arrest and execute the presiding judge - the High Court judge who has been overseeing his judicial proceedings.

The scheme was stopped because it didn't receive the endorsement of the military leaders. His successor was took office without issue on January 1st, 2023.

But a seven days after, on the eighth of January, numerous Bolsonaro supporters stormed and vandalised government buildings in the federal district, Brazil's capital.

The security forces took action and around 1,500 people were arrested.

The judges found that the protesters had been encouraged by Bolsonaro whose plan, they said, was for the national armed forces to intervene, reestablish control and return him to office.

At the time, the legal team called the 27 years and three months sentence "absurdly excessive.

He was also barred from campaigning for office until twenty-sixty - eight years after the end of his sentence.

The ex-leader called the court case a targeted investigation" and said it was aimed at blocking him competing in the 2026 presidential election.