The former Brazilian leader has been taken into custody after authorities concluded he posed a definite escape threat while under house arrest.
The one-time leader was sentenced of orchestrating a armed takeover in last fall and given more than a 27-year term in incarceration, but he continued under home detention pending court reviews.
Top Judicial Official Alexandre de Moraes said the decision to arrest the elderly politician was a precautionary step after recent developments came to light.
This included trying to remove his tracking device and a call for a demonstration that could facilitate a possible escape.
Legal Document Reveals Escape Risks
In a document approving the detention, Justice Moraes said information from the centre monitoring Bolsonaro's house arrest suggested the former leader's plan to remove the surveillance device to secure accomplishment in his flight.
This, it said, would be "facilitated by the disorder caused by the protest called by his offspring.
His child, Flávio Bolsonaro, who works as a legislator, called for a assembly of his backers near Bolsonaro's home to take place on Saturday evening.
Flávio Bolsonaro wrote on social media on last Friday: Will you battle for your country, or watch it all from your mobile device there on your sofa? I invite you to struggle with us."
He said the vigil would be so followers could "pray for his well-being and for the return of democracy in our nation."
Embassy Asylum Concerns
Part of the magistrate's determination was the chance of Bolsonaro's "relocation to foreign missions near the dwelling, considering that the inquiries revealed a background of arranging to ask for protection through a embassy office", a statement said.
The judicial paperwork emphasizes that the American diplomatic mission in the capital, Brazil's capital, is positioned around approximately 13 kilometers from the former president's residence.
International Reactions
The former president's legal troubles have provoked anger from fellow conservative nationalist US President President Trump, causing him to enact a 50% tariff on goods coming from Brazil.
Bolsonaro is being kept in a national police facility in the capital and will experience a imprisonment assessment on the following day.
Latest Court Petitions
It was only on Friday that the former president's lawyers asked the High Court to allow him to serve his whole jail sentence under domestic detention, with tracking devices.
They also petitioned that he be allowed to exit his dwelling for medical care, saying he demanded regular treatment for pulmonary infections and other illnesses.
Background on Conviction
He was convicted of orchestrating a conspiracy aimed at retaining his authority after he lost the 2022 election to his ideological adversary, President Lula.
Top judicial officials said that he was aware of a scheme which involved plans to murder his opponent and his VP candidate, Geraldo Alckmin, and to detain and kill the presiding judge - the top judicial official who has been overseeing his judicial proceedings.
The conspiracy was prevented because it failed to get the support of the military leaders. His successor was inaugurated without issue on 1 January 2023.
But a following week, on 8 January, many Bolsonaro supporters invaded and destroyed public facilities in the capital, Brasília.
The law enforcement intervened and around fifteen hundred individuals were arrested.
The magistrates found that the demonstrators had been provoked by Bolsonaro whose scheme, they said, was for the country's army to intervene, reestablish control and reinstate his authority.
At the moment, the legal team called the over 27-year sentence extremely harsh.
He was also banned from running for public office until twenty-sixty - a decade minus two years after the end of his sentence.
The ex-leader called the legal proceedings a political persecution and said it was intended to stop him competing in the next presidential race.
