🔗 Share this article

The former Brazilian leader has been taken into custody after authorities found he posed a serious risk of fleeing while under house arrest.

The former head of state was sentenced of plotting a armed takeover in September and given more than over two decades in jail, but he was staying under house arrest pending court reviews.

Top Judicial Official Alexandre de Moraes said the move to detain the elderly politician was a precautionary step after fresh information were revealed.

This involved trying to remove his tracking device and a call for a public vigil that could facilitate a chance to flee".

Legal Document Reveals Flight Fears

In a filing authorising the detention, the magistrate said data from the centre monitoring the former president's confinement suggested the former leader's "intention to break the electronic ankle bracelet to ensure success in his escape.

This, it said, would be made easier by the disorder caused by the protest called by his child.

His offspring, Flávio Bolsonaro, who holds office as a senator, called for a gathering of his backers near the former president's residence to take place on Saturday evening.

Flávio Bolsonaro wrote on digital networks on Friday: Will you battle for your homeland, or watch it all from your smartphone there on your sofa? I call on you to struggle 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 country."

Diplomatic Refuge Fears

Part of the judge's determination was the potential of Bolsonaro's "relocation to diplomatic missions near the residence, considering that the probes revealed a history of arranging to seek refuge through a consular facility", a announcement said.

The judicial paperwork highlights that the US embassy in the capital, Brazil's capital, is positioned around 8 miles from the former president's residence.

Global Responses

The former president's legal troubles have provoked anger from fellow right-wing populist US President President Trump, leading him to impose a fifty percent tax on Brazilian product imports.

Bolsonaro is being held in a national police facility in Brasilia and will have a detention review on Sunday.

Recent Legal Requests

It was only on last Friday that the ex-leader's attorneys asked the Top Court to authorize him to fulfill his full incarceration period under home confinement, with digital surveillance.

They also asked that Bolsonaro be allowed to leave his home for healthcare, saying he needed frequent medical attention for lung conditions and other health problems.

Details of Guilty Verdict

Bolsonaro was convicted of orchestrating a scheme aimed at keeping him in power after he was defeated in the 2022 election to his political opponent, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Supreme Court justices said that he was aware of a scheme which encompassed plans to kill the current president and his running partner, Alckmin, and to detain and kill Justice Moraes - the High Court judge who has been overseeing his judicial proceedings.

The conspiracy was stopped because it couldn't obtain the support of the military leaders. His successor was took office without issue on January 1st, 2023.

But a following week, on 8 January, many Bolsonaro supporters stormed and vandalised public facilities in the national capital, Brasília.

The law enforcement intervened and around 1,500 people were detained.

The justices found that the protesters had been encouraged by Bolsonaro whose strategy, they said, was for the Brazilian military to step in, bring back stability and return him to office.

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

He was also barred from running for public office until twenty-sixty - a decade minus two years after the conclusion of his imprisonment.

The former president called the legal proceedings a targeted investigation" and said it was designed to prevent him running in the next presidential race.