The former Brazilian leader has been detained after authorities determined he posed a definite escape threat while under home confinement.
The one-time leader was sentenced of orchestrating a military coup in September and sentenced more than over two decades in prison, but he remained under house arrest pending appeals.
High Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes said the decision to arrest the septuagenarian politician was a preventative measure after fresh information came to light.
This encompassed attempting to break his ankle monitor and a invitation to a public vigil that could enable a potential flight.
Legal Document Reveals Flight Fears
In a paperwork permitting the detention, the judge said intelligence from the centre monitoring the former president's confinement suggested the former leader's plan to remove the surveillance device to ensure success in his getaway".
This, it said, would be "facilitated by the disorder caused by the protest called by his child.
His son, Flávio Bolsonaro, who serves as a legislator, called for a gathering of his supporters near the former president's residence to take place on Saturday night.
His son wrote on online platforms on last Friday: Do you plan to struggle for your country, or watch it all from your phone there on your couch? I call on you to struggle with us."
He said the vigil would be so followers could offer prayers for his health and for the return of democracy in our nation."
Embassy Asylum Concerns
Part of the magistrate's determination was the potential of Bolsonaro's move to foreign missions near the dwelling, considering that the probes revealed a background of arranging to seek refuge through a embassy office", a announcement said.
The legal document underscores that the US embassy in the capital, the capital city, is positioned around 13km from the former president's residence.
Global Responses
The former president's legal troubles have generated frustration from fellow conservative nationalist American leader Donald Trump, leading him to impose a fifty percent tax on goods coming from Brazil.
The former president is being kept in a federal law enforcement building in Brazil's capital city and will experience a imprisonment assessment on the next day.
Recent Legal Requests
It was only on last Friday that the ex-leader's attorneys asked the Top Court to authorize him to serve his whole jail sentence under home confinement, with electronic monitoring.
They also requested that Bolsonaro be allowed to leave his home for medical treatment, saying he required regular treatment for lung conditions and other ailments.
Context of Sentencing
Bolsonaro was found guilty of heading a plot aimed at retaining his authority after he failed to win the presidential race to his political opponent, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
High Court judges said that he knew of a scheme which encompassed plans to murder the current president and his vice-presidential running mate, Geraldo Alckmin, and to detain and kill Alexandre de Moraes - the High Court judge who has been overseeing the former president's case.
The scheme was prevented because it didn't receive the endorsement of the armed forces officials. His successor was took office without issue on 1 January 2023.
But a seven days after, on the eighth of January, many his backers attacked and damaged official structures in the national capital, Brazil's capital.
The law enforcement intervened and around 1,500 people were arrested.
The judges found that the demonstrators had been incited by Bolsonaro whose strategy, they said, was for the country's army to intervene, bring back stability and bring him back to power.
At the period, the legal team called the decades-long sentence extremely harsh.
He was also barred from campaigning for office until 2060 - eight years after the end of his sentence.
The one-time head of state called the court case a political persecution and said it was intended to stop him participating in the next presidential race.
