The former Brazilian president arrested after being declared a risk of fleeing

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Bolsonaro has been taken into custody after authorities found he posed a definite escape threat while under domestic detention.

The ex-president was sentenced of planning a government overthrow in September and given more than 27 years in prison, but he was staying under confinement pending court reviews.

High Court Judge Justice Moraes said the decision to arrest the elderly politician was a precautionary step after fresh information were revealed.

This encompassed seeking to disable his tracking device and a summons to a public vigil that could facilitate a possible escape.

Court Filing Details Escape Risks

In a document approving the custody, the magistrate said information from the facility tracking the former president's confinement suggested the ex-president's "intention to break the electronic ankle bracelet to ensure success in his getaway".

This, it said, would be made easier by the disorder caused by the protest called by his son.

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

Flávio Bolsonaro wrote on digital networks on last Friday: Do you plan to struggle for your homeland, or see it all from your smartphone there on your couch? I urge you to battle with us."

He said the demonstration would be so backers could offer prayers for his physical condition and for the restoration of democratic rule in our country."

Foreign Shelter Risks

Part of the judge's decision was the potential of his "relocation to diplomatic missions near the home, considering that the probes revealed a history of arranging to ask for protection through a consular facility", a announcement said.

The legal document highlights that the US embassy in the federal district, Brasilia, is located around approximately 13 kilometers from the former president's residence.

International Reactions

Bolsonaro's legal woes have provoked anger from fellow right-wing populist United States President Trump, causing him to impose a fifty percent tax on Brazilian product imports.

Bolsonaro is being kept in a national police facility in Brasilia and will experience a detention review on the following day.

Recent Legal Requests

It was only on last Friday that the ex-leader's attorneys asked the High Court to allow him to fulfill his full incarceration period under domestic detention, with electronic monitoring.

They also requested that he be allowed to exit his dwelling for medical care, saying he demanded ongoing care for lung conditions and other illnesses.

Context of Sentencing

Bolsonaro was determined responsible of orchestrating a conspiracy aimed at maintaining his control after he was defeated in the 2022 election to his ideological adversary, President Lula.

Supreme Court justices said that he knew of a plot which included plans to kill Lula and his VP candidate, Geraldo Alckmin, and to detain and kill Justice Moraes - the High Court judge who has been overseeing Bolsonaro's trial.

The scheme was stopped because it didn't receive the support of the armed forces officials. The current president was inaugurated without issue on the first day of 2023.

But a week later, on the eighth of January, thousands of his backers stormed and vandalised official structures in the national capital, Brazil's capital.

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

The magistrates found that the demonstrators had been provoked by him whose strategy, they said, was for the Brazilian military to step in, bring back stability and reinstate his authority.

At the moment, the legal team called the decades-long sentence unreasonably severe".

He was also prohibited from campaigning for office until twenty-sixty - a decade minus two years after the completion of his term.

The one-time head of state called the legal proceedings a political persecution and said it was aimed at blocking him running in the 2026 national vote.

Gregory Morgan
Gregory Morgan

Elara Vance is a writer and thinker with a background in digital humanities, focusing on the intersection of culture and innovation.