🔗 Share this article

The former Brazilian leader has been taken into custody after authorities found he posed a definite escape threat while under domestic detention.

The ex-president was found guilty of orchestrating a armed takeover in the ninth month and handed more than a 27-year term in jail, but he continued under house arrest pending legal challenges.

High Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes said the move to detain the elderly politician was a precautionary step after recent developments came to light.

This encompassed attempting to break his tracking device and a invitation to a demonstration that could enable a chance to flee".

Court Filing Details Escape Concerns

In a paperwork permitting the detention, Justice Moraes said intelligence from the centre monitoring the former president's confinement suggested the ex-president's aim to disable the tracking monitor to ensure success in his escape.

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

His son, Flávio, who serves as a legislator, called for a gathering of his backers near the former president's residence to take place on Saturday night.

The senator wrote on online platforms on Friday: "Are you going to fight for your homeland, or observe everything from your phone there on your settee? I urge you to struggle with us."

He said the vigil would be so followers could "pray for his well-being and for the restoration of democratic rule in our nation."

Embassy Asylum Concerns

Part of the judge's ruling was the chance of Bolsonaro's move to foreign missions near the home, considering that the inquiries revealed a history of arranging to ask for protection through a consular facility", a declaration said.

The court filing emphasizes that the US embassy in the capital, Brazil's capital, is located around 8 miles from Bolsonaro's home.

International Reactions

His judicial problems have drawn the ire of fellow populist conservative US President Trump, prompting him to impose a half-rate duty on Brazilian product imports.

He is being detained in a Federal Police station in the capital and will undergo a custody hearing on Sunday.

Recent Legal Requests

It was only on Friday that the ex-leader's attorneys asked the Supreme Court to allow him to complete his entire prison term under domestic detention, with electronic monitoring.

They also petitioned that Bolsonaro be authorized to depart his residence for medical treatment, saying he required regular treatment for lung conditions and other ailments.

Background on Conviction

Bolsonaro was found guilty of heading a plot aimed at maintaining his control after he failed to win the national vote to his ideological adversary, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Top judicial officials said that he was aware of a plan which encompassed plans to murder his opponent and his running partner, his vice-presidential candidate, and to detain and kill Justice Moraes - the Supreme Court justice who has been managing Bolsonaro's trial.

The scheme was thwarted because it failed to get the backing of the army and air force commanders. The current president was inaugurated without incident on the first day of 2023.

But a seven days after, on 8 January, numerous Bolsonaro supporters invaded and destroyed government buildings in the federal district, Brasília.

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

The justices found that the demonstrators had been encouraged by the former president whose plan, they said, was for the national armed forces to take action, reestablish control and bring him back to power.

At the time, Bolsonaro's lawyers called the 27 years and three months sentence extremely harsh.

He was also banned from seeking elected position until twenty-sixty - a decade minus two years after the end of his sentence.

The one-time head of state called the trial a political persecution and said it was aimed at blocking him competing in the 2026 presidential election.