Jair 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 armed takeover in September and given more than over two decades in prison, but he was staying under confinement pending appeals.
Brazilian Supreme Court Justice the presiding justice said the action to imprison the 70-year-old politician was a safety action after recent developments emerged.
This encompassed attempting to break his tracking device and a summons to a public vigil that could enable a potential flight.
Legal Document Reveals Flight Fears
In a paperwork permitting the arrest, Justice Moraes said intelligence from the facility tracking the former president's confinement suggested the one-time head of state's plan to remove the tracking monitor to ensure success in his getaway".
This, it said, would be "facilitated by the disorder caused by the gathering called by his child.
His child, Flávio, who serves as a senator, called for a meeting of his followers near his father's house to take place on Saturday night.
Flávio Bolsonaro wrote on social media on the previous day: "Are you going to fight for your nation, or watch it all from your smartphone there on your settee? I urge you to struggle with us."
He said the demonstration would be so supporters could seek divine intervention for his well-being and for the reestablishment of democratic governance in our land."
Foreign Shelter Risks
Part of the magistrate's decision was the potential of the former president's "relocation to foreign missions near the residence, considering that the probes revealed a background of arranging to seek refuge through a diplomatic representation", a declaration said.
The legal document highlights that the American diplomatic mission in the national capital, Brasilia, is situated around 13km from his dwelling.
Global Responses
His judicial problems have drawn the ire of fellow right-wing populist American leader Trump, prompting him to implement a fifty percent tax on Brazilian product imports.
The former president is being kept in a national police facility in the capital and will undergo a detention review on Sunday.
Latest Court Petitions
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 domestic detention, with tracking devices.
They also asked that Bolsonaro be allowed to depart his residence for healthcare, saying he required ongoing care for respiratory ailments and other illnesses.
Background on Conviction
He was convicted of heading a plot aimed at maintaining his control after he lost the 2022 election to his political opponent, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
High Court judges said that he was aware of a scheme which encompassed plans to assassinate the current president and his vice-presidential running mate, Alckmin, and to imprison and murder Justice Moraes - the top judicial official who has been presiding over Bolsonaro's trial.
The plot was prevented because it couldn't obtain the support of the army and air force commanders. His successor was sworn in without incident on January 1st, 2023.
But a seven days after, on January 8th, thousands of Bolsonaro supporters invaded and destroyed official structures in the federal district, the capital city.
The law enforcement intervened and around fifteen hundred individuals were taken into custody.
The judges found that the rioters had been encouraged by the former president whose scheme, they said, was for the Brazilian military to intervene, restore order and bring him back to power.
At the moment, Bolsonaro's lawyers called the decades-long sentence extremely harsh.
He was also barred from running for public office until the year 2060 - a decade minus two years after the conclusion of his imprisonment.
The one-time head of state called the legal proceedings a targeted investigation" and said it was aimed at blocking him competing in the next presidential race.
