🔗 Share this article

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

The ex-president was sentenced of plotting a government overthrow in the ninth month and given more than a 27-year term in prison, but he continued under home detention pending court reviews.

Top Judicial Official the presiding justice said the action to imprison the 70-year-old politician was a precautionary step after recent developments were revealed.

This involved seeking to disable his tracking device and a call for a supporters' gathering that could facilitate a possible escape.

Legal Document Reveals Escape Risks

In a paperwork permitting the custody, the magistrate said intelligence from the centre monitoring Bolsonaro's house arrest suggested the former leader's aim to disable the electronic ankle bracelet to ensure success in his getaway".

This, it said, would be made easier by the chaos caused by the demonstration called by his son.

His son, Flávio, who serves as a senator, called for a gathering of his backers near Bolsonaro's home to take place on Saturday evening.

The senator wrote on digital networks on last Friday: "Are you going to fight for your homeland, or watch it all from your mobile device there on your couch? I urge you to struggle with us."

He said the gathering would be so backers could seek divine intervention for his physical condition and for the return of democracy in our country."

Embassy Asylum Concerns

Part of the judge's determination was the possibility of Bolsonaro's move to diplomatic missions near the home, considering that the investigations revealed a background of organizing to ask for protection through a embassy office", a statement said.

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

Global Responses

Bolsonaro's legal woes have generated frustration from fellow populist conservative United States President President Trump, causing 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 following day.

Recent Judicial Appeals

It was only on Friday that the his legal team asked the Top Court to authorize him to serve his whole jail sentence under house arrest, with electronic monitoring.

They also requested that he be permitted to exit his dwelling for medical treatment, saying he demanded frequent medical attention for respiratory ailments and other ailments.

Details of Guilty Verdict

He was determined responsible of leading a scheme aimed at maintaining his control after he failed to win the 2022 election to his political opponent, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

High Court judges said that he knew of a plot which encompassed plans to assassinate the current president and his vice-presidential running mate, his vice-presidential candidate, and to arrest and execute the presiding judge - the top judicial official who has been overseeing the former president's case.

The conspiracy was thwarted because it didn't receive the endorsement of the military leaders. The current president was inaugurated without problem on January 1st, 2023.

But a seven days after, on January 8th, numerous his followers attacked and damaged official structures in the federal district, Brasília.

The police intervened and around fifteen hundred individuals were detained.

The magistrates found that the rioters had been provoked by him whose scheme, they said, was for the country's army to step in, restore order and reinstate his authority.

At the moment, his attorneys called the over 27-year sentence unreasonably severe".

He was also barred from running for public office until twenty-sixty - eight years later after the end of his sentence.

The one-time head of state called the court case a "witch hunt and said it was aimed at blocking him competing in the 2026 presidential election.