The former Brazilian leader has been taken into custody after authorities determined he posed a concrete flight risk while under home confinement.
The one-time leader was sentenced of orchestrating a military coup in the ninth month and sentenced more than 27 years in jail, but he remained under house arrest pending court reviews.
High Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes said the action to imprison the 70-year-old politician was a precautionary step after recent developments came to light.
This involved trying to remove his tracking device and a invitation to a public vigil that could enable a potential flight.
Legal Document Reveals Escape Risks
In a paperwork permitting the custody, the judge said data from the facility tracking the former president's confinement suggested the former leader's plan to remove the surveillance device to ensure success in his getaway".
This, it said, would be made easier by the chaos caused by the protest called by his offspring.
His offspring, his son Flávio, who holds office as a senator, called for a meeting of his followers near Bolsonaro's home to take place on Saturday evening.
The senator wrote on social media on the previous day: "Are you going to fight for your homeland, or see it all from your phone there on your sofa? I call on you to struggle with us."
He said the gathering would be so supporters could offer prayers for his well-being and for the reestablishment of democratic governance in our country."
Diplomatic Refuge Fears
Part of the judge's determination was the chance of the former president's move to embassies near the residence, considering that the investigations revealed a history of planning to ask for protection through a consular facility", a announcement said.
The court filing underscores that the American diplomatic mission in the capital, the capital city, is positioned around approximately 13 kilometers from the former president's residence.
Worldwide Consequences
The former president's legal troubles have drawn the ire of fellow populist conservative United States President Donald Trump, causing him to enact a fifty percent tax on goods coming from Brazil.
He is being kept in a Federal Police station in the capital and will have a detention review on the next day.
Latest Court Petitions
It was only on the previous day that the his legal team asked the Supreme Court to authorize him to complete his entire prison term under house arrest, with electronic monitoring.
They also petitioned that he be permitted to exit his dwelling for healthcare, saying he required ongoing care for lung conditions and other illnesses.
Context of Sentencing
The former president was found guilty of leading a plot aimed at keeping him in power after he lost the presidential race to his ideological adversary, President Lula.
Supreme Court justices said that he was aware of a scheme which included plans to kill the current president and his VP candidate, Geraldo Alckmin, and to detain and kill Justice Moraes - the Supreme Court justice who has been presiding over Bolsonaro's trial.
The scheme was prevented because it couldn't obtain the support of the military leaders. Lula was inaugurated without problem on January 1st, 2023.
But a week later, on January 8th, thousands of his backers attacked and damaged government buildings in the federal district, Brazil's capital.
The law enforcement stepped in and around 1,500 people were arrested.
The judges found that the protesters had been encouraged by Bolsonaro whose scheme, they said, was for the national armed forces to take action, bring back stability and return him to office.
At the time, the legal team called the 27 years and three months sentence extremely harsh.
He was also banned from campaigning for office until twenty-sixty - eight years after the end of his sentence.
The former president called the legal proceedings a political persecution and said it was designed to prevent him running in the 2026 presidential election.
