🔗 Share this article

Bolsonaro has been arrested after authorities concluded he posed a concrete flight risk while under home confinement.

The ex-president was found guilty of orchestrating a armed takeover in the ninth month and given more than over two decades in incarceration, but he continued under confinement pending legal challenges.

Top Judicial Official Alexandre de Moraes said the move to detain the 70-year-old politician was a precautionary step after recent developments were revealed.

This encompassed trying to remove his tracking device and a call for a supporters' gathering that could "allow for a potential flight.

Court Filing Details Escape Concerns

In a document approving the arrest, Justice Moraes said information from the facility tracking the former president's confinement suggested the one-time head of state's plan to remove the tracking monitor to secure accomplishment in his getaway".

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

His child, Flávio, who serves as a senator, called for a meeting of his supporters near the former president's residence to take place on Saturday night.

Flávio Bolsonaro wrote on digital networks on the previous day: Do you plan to struggle for your country, or see it all from your smartphone there on your sofa? I invite you to fight with us."

He said the gathering would be so supporters could seek divine intervention for his well-being and for the restoration of democratic rule in our country."

Foreign Shelter Risks

Part of Justice Moraes's ruling was the possibility of the former president's move to embassies near the residence, considering that the probes revealed a history of organizing to ask for protection through a embassy office", a declaration said.

The legal document emphasizes that the United States embassy in the capital, Brasilia, is positioned around 8 miles from the former president's residence.

Global Responses

Bolsonaro's legal woes have drawn the ire of fellow right-wing populist United States President Trump, causing him to implement a half-rate duty on imports of Brazilian goods.

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

Latest Court Petitions

It was only on Friday that the his legal team asked the Top Court to permit him to complete his entire prison term under domestic detention, with electronic monitoring.

They also asked that he be permitted to leave his home for medical treatment, saying he needed ongoing care for pulmonary infections and other illnesses.

Background on Conviction

He was convicted of heading a plot aimed at retaining his authority after he lost the presidential race to his ideological adversary, Lula.

Top judicial officials said that he had knowledge of a scheme which included plans to assassinate Lula and his VP candidate, Geraldo Alckmin, and to detain and kill Justice Moraes - the High Court judge who has been presiding over his judicial proceedings.

The plot was prevented because it failed to get the endorsement of the army and air force commanders. Lula was took office without issue on the first day of 2023.

But a seven days after, on January 8th, many Bolsonaro supporters stormed and vandalised public facilities in the national capital, Brasília.

The police intervened and around fifteen hundred individuals were taken into custody.

The judges found that the demonstrators had been provoked by the former president whose plan, they said, was for the country's army to take action, bring back stability and reinstate his authority.

At the time, his attorneys called the over 27-year sentence "absurdly excessive.

He was also banned from seeking elected position until 2060 - eight years later after the end of his sentence.

The one-time head of state called the trial a political persecution and said it was intended to stop him participating in the 2026 national vote.