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Bolsonaro has been arrested after authorities found he posed a definite escape threat while under home confinement.

The former head of state was convicted of plotting a military coup in September and handed more than a 27-year term in jail, but he remained under home detention pending appeals.

High Court Judge Justice Moraes said the decision to arrest the 70-year-old politician was a precautionary step after recent developments emerged.

This encompassed trying to remove his tracking device and a invitation to a supporters' gathering that could "allow for a possible escape.

Judicial Records Show Escape Risks

In a paperwork permitting the custody, Justice Moraes said information from the facility tracking his home detention suggested the former leader's aim to disable the tracking monitor to ensure success in his getaway".

This, it said, would be assisted by the confusion caused by the protest called by his child.

His offspring, Flávio Bolsonaro, who works as a legislator, called for a gathering of his supporters near his father's house to take place on Saturday evening.

Flávio Bolsonaro wrote on digital networks on the previous day: Will you battle for your country, or watch it all from your smartphone there on your sofa? I call on you to battle with us."

He said the gathering would be so followers could "pray for his health and for the reestablishment of democratic governance in our land."

Embassy Asylum Concerns

Part of the judge's decision was the possibility of the former president's "relocation to diplomatic missions near the dwelling, considering that the inquiries revealed a background of planning to ask for protection through a consular facility", a declaration said.

The court filing highlights that the US embassy in the federal district, Brazil's capital, is located around approximately 13 kilometers from the former president's residence.

International Reactions

Bolsonaro's legal woes have drawn the ire of fellow populist conservative US President President Trump, leading him to impose a fifty percent tax on imports of Brazilian goods.

The former president is being detained in a federal law enforcement building in Brazil's capital city and will experience a detention review on the next day.

Recent Judicial Appeals

It was only on Friday that the former president's lawyers asked the Supreme Court to authorize him to serve his whole jail sentence under domestic detention, with tracking devices.

They also requested that Bolsonaro be authorized to leave his home for medical treatment, saying he required regular treatment for respiratory ailments and other ailments.

Context of Sentencing

Bolsonaro was found guilty of heading a scheme aimed at retaining his authority after he lost the national vote to his ideological adversary, President Lula.

Supreme Court justices said that he had knowledge of a scheme which encompassed plans to assassinate his opponent and his vice-presidential running mate, Alckmin, and to imprison and murder Alexandre de Moraes - the top judicial official who has been managing Bolsonaro's trial.

The plot was prevented because it couldn't obtain the backing of the army and air force commanders. The current president was took office without issue on the first day of 2023.

But a seven days after, on 8 January, many his backers stormed and vandalised official structures in the capital, Brasília.

The security forces stepped in and around fifteen hundred individuals were detained.

The justices found that the protesters had been incited by him whose scheme, they said, was for the Brazilian military to intervene, bring back stability and return him to office.

At the period, his attorneys called the 27 years and three months sentence unreasonably severe".

He was also banned from campaigning for office until twenty-sixty - a decade minus two years after the end of his sentence.

The one-time head of state called the court case a targeted investigation" and said it was aimed at blocking him running in the 2026 national vote.