🔗 Share this article

Jair Bolsonaro has been arrested after authorities found he posed a concrete flight risk while under domestic detention.

The ex-president was found guilty of planning a government overthrow in the ninth month and given more than over two decades in incarceration, but he was staying under home detention pending appeals.

Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes said the action to imprison the septuagenarian politician was a safety action after recent developments emerged.

This involved seeking to disable his ankle monitor and a call for a public vigil that could enable a chance to flee".

Judicial Records Show Escape Risks

In a paperwork permitting the arrest, Justice Moraes said intelligence from the facility tracking Bolsonaro's house arrest suggested the ex-president's aim to disable the surveillance device to guarantee victory in his flight.

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

His offspring, his son Flávio, who holds office as a senator, called for a assembly of his supporters near his father's house to take place on Saturday night.

The senator wrote on social media on Friday: Will you battle for your country, or watch it all from your smartphone there on your couch? I invite you to battle with us."

He said the demonstration would be so backers could offer prayers for his health and for the return of democracy in our land."

Embassy Asylum Concerns

Part of Justice Moraes's decision was the potential of the former president's transfer to diplomatic missions near the dwelling, considering that the probes revealed a record of organizing to seek refuge through a diplomatic representation", a statement said.

The court filing highlights that the American diplomatic mission in the capital, the capital city, is located around 13km from the former president's residence.

Worldwide Consequences

The former president's legal troubles have drawn the ire of fellow right-wing populist United States President Trump, leading him to enact a fifty percent tax on imports of Brazilian goods.

Bolsonaro is being kept in a national police facility in the capital and will have a imprisonment assessment on the following day.

Recent Legal Requests

It was only on last Friday that the his legal team asked the High Court to permit him to serve his whole jail sentence under house arrest, with digital surveillance.

They also asked that Bolsonaro be allowed to depart his residence for medical treatment, saying he demanded ongoing care for respiratory ailments 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 presidential race to his left-wing rival, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Supreme Court justices said that he was aware of a plot which included plans to murder Lula and his running partner, Alckmin, and to arrest and execute the presiding judge - the High Court judge who has been presiding over the former president's case.

The plot was stopped because it failed to get the support of the army and air force commanders. Lula was sworn in without issue on 1 January 2023.

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

The security forces stepped in and around 1,500 people were arrested.

The judges found that the demonstrators had been provoked by him whose scheme, they said, was for the country's army to step in, bring back stability and bring him back to power.

At the period, the legal team called the 27 years and three months sentence unreasonably severe".

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

The former president called the trial a "witch hunt and said it was designed to prevent him competing in the next presidential race.