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The former Brazilian leader has been arrested after authorities found he posed a serious risk of fleeing while under home confinement.

The ex-president was convicted of planning a armed takeover in the ninth month and handed more than a 27-year term in incarceration, but he was staying under house arrest pending legal challenges.

Top Judicial Official the presiding justice said the move to detain the elderly politician was a precautionary step after fresh information emerged.

This encompassed trying to remove his tracking device and a call for a supporters' gathering that could "allow for a chance to flee".

Legal Document Reveals Escape Concerns

In a document approving the detention, the magistrate said data from the facility tracking Bolsonaro's house arrest 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 gathering called by his child.

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

The senator wrote on online platforms on the previous day: Do you plan to struggle for your country, or watch it all from your phone there on your sofa? I call on you to struggle with us."

He said the demonstration would be so supporters could seek divine intervention for his health and for the restoration of democratic rule in our nation."

Diplomatic Refuge Fears

Part of Justice Moraes's determination was the potential of his "relocation to embassies near the home, considering that the investigations revealed a record of organizing to seek refuge through a embassy office", a declaration said.

The judicial paperwork underscores that the American diplomatic mission in the capital, Brasilia, is situated around 13km from his dwelling.

International Reactions

Bolsonaro's legal woes have generated frustration from fellow populist conservative US President President Trump, prompting him to impose a half-rate duty on Brazilian product imports.

The former president is being detained in a Federal Police station in Brasilia and will undergo a imprisonment assessment on the next day.

Recent Judicial Appeals

It was only on Friday that the ex-leader's attorneys asked the Top Court to allow him to serve his whole jail sentence under home confinement, with tracking devices.

They also asked that the former president be authorized to exit his dwelling for healthcare, saying he required regular treatment for lung conditions and other illnesses.

Background on Conviction

Bolsonaro was determined responsible of leading a scheme aimed at keeping him in power after he lost the presidential race to his left-wing rival, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Supreme Court justices said that he had knowledge of a scheme which included plans to assassinate the current president and his VP candidate, his vice-presidential candidate, and to arrest and execute the presiding judge - the top judicial official who has been presiding over the former president's case.

The conspiracy was prevented because it failed to get the backing of the army and air force commanders. Lula was inaugurated without problem on the first day of 2023.

But a week later, on January 8th, many his backers stormed and vandalised public facilities in the capital, Brasília.

The law enforcement intervened and around fifteen hundred individuals were arrested.

The justices found that the demonstrators had been provoked by him whose scheme, they said, was for the Brazilian military to intervene, bring back stability and reinstate his authority.

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

He was also banned from campaigning for office until 2060 - a decade minus two years 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 2026 national vote.