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Bolsonaro has been detained after authorities concluded he posed a concrete flight risk while under house arrest.

The former head of state was sentenced of planning a government overthrow in September and given more than over two decades in prison, but he continued under house arrest pending court reviews.

High Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes said the decision to arrest the elderly politician was a safety action after recent developments emerged.

This included seeking to disable his ankle monitor and a summons to a demonstration that could facilitate a chance to flee".

Legal Document Reveals Escape Concerns

In a document approving the detention, the judge said intelligence from the centre monitoring Bolsonaro's house arrest suggested the one-time head of state's aim to disable the surveillance device to ensure success in his flight.

This, it said, would be "facilitated by the chaos caused by the gathering called by his offspring.

His son, his son Flávio, who works as a senator, called for a gathering of his followers near his father's house to take place on Saturday night.

The senator wrote on social media on Friday: "Are you going to fight for your country, or see it all from your phone there on your couch? I call on you to struggle with us."

He said the gathering would be so followers could seek divine intervention for his well-being and for the reestablishment of democratic governance in our country."

Embassy Asylum Concerns

Part of the magistrate's ruling was the chance of the former president's "relocation to embassies near the home, considering that the investigations revealed a record of arranging to seek refuge through a consular facility", a statement said.

The court filing underscores that the American diplomatic mission in the capital, Brazil's capital, is positioned around approximately 13 kilometers from the former president's residence.

Worldwide Consequences

Bolsonaro's legal woes have provoked anger from fellow populist conservative US President Trump, leading him to implement a fifty percent tax on imports of Brazilian goods.

The former president is being kept in a national police facility in Brazil's capital city and will have a imprisonment assessment on the following day.

Recent Legal Requests

It was only on Friday that the former president's lawyers asked the Top Court to allow him to serve his whole jail sentence under domestic detention, with electronic monitoring.

They also requested that Bolsonaro be allowed to leave his home for healthcare, saying he needed ongoing care for lung conditions and other illnesses.

Background on Conviction

He was convicted of orchestrating a plot aimed at retaining his authority after he was defeated in the 2022 election to his ideological adversary, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Top judicial officials said that he had knowledge of a plot which involved plans to assassinate his opponent and his VP candidate, Alckmin, and to arrest and execute the presiding judge - the top judicial official who has been managing his judicial proceedings.

The scheme was stopped because it didn't receive the backing of the military leaders. The current president was took office without problem on 1 January 2023.

But a week later, on January 8th, thousands of Bolsonaro supporters stormed and vandalised public facilities in the federal district, Brazil's capital.

The police intervened and around fifteen hundred individuals were arrested.

The justices found that the rioters had been provoked by the former president whose strategy, they said, was for the Brazilian military to take action, restore order and bring him back to power.

At the moment, the legal team called the 27 years and three months sentence "absurdly excessive.

He was also barred from campaigning for office until 2060 - eight years after the conclusion of his imprisonment.

The ex-leader called the legal proceedings a "witch hunt and said it was designed to prevent him participating in the 2026 national vote.