🔗 Share this article

The former Brazilian leader has been detained after authorities determined he posed a concrete flight risk while under domestic detention.

The former head of state was found guilty of plotting a military coup in September and sentenced more than 27 years in prison, but he remained under confinement pending legal challenges.

Brazilian Supreme Court Justice the presiding justice said the move to detain the elderly politician was a preventative measure after "new facts" were revealed.

This included attempting to break his tracking device and a invitation to a demonstration that could enable a potential flight.

Judicial Records Show Escape Risks

In a filing authorising the arrest, the judge said intelligence from the centre monitoring Bolsonaro's house arrest suggested the one-time head of state's aim to disable the tracking monitor to secure accomplishment in his flight.

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

His offspring, his son Flávio, who works as a legislator, called for a assembly of his followers near the former president's residence to take place on the weekend.

Flávio Bolsonaro wrote on online platforms on last Friday: Do you plan to struggle for your country, or see it all from your mobile device there on your couch? I urge you to battle with us."

He said the vigil would be so backers could seek divine intervention for his health and for the reestablishment of democratic governance in our land."

Embassy Asylum Concerns

Part of Justice Moraes's ruling was the possibility of the former president's transfer to diplomatic missions near the home, considering that the probes revealed a background of planning to ask for protection through a embassy office", a statement said.

The judicial paperwork emphasizes that the US embassy in the capital, Brazil's capital, is located around 13km from Bolsonaro's home.

Worldwide Consequences

The former president's legal troubles have provoked anger from fellow populist conservative US President Donald Trump, prompting him to enact a fifty percent tax on goods coming from Brazil.

Bolsonaro is being kept in a federal law enforcement building in the capital and will experience a custody hearing on the following day.

Recent Legal Requests

It was only on last Friday that the his legal team asked the High Court to permit him to complete his entire prison term under house arrest, with tracking devices.

They also asked that he be authorized to leave his home for healthcare, saying he needed regular treatment for lung conditions and other illnesses.

Context of Sentencing

He was found guilty of leading a plot aimed at maintaining his control after he lost the national vote to his ideological adversary, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

High Court judges said that he was aware of a plan which included plans to assassinate Lula and his running partner, his vice-presidential candidate, and to arrest and execute Justice Moraes - the top judicial official who has been presiding over the former president's case.

The conspiracy was thwarted because it failed to get the support of the military leaders. His successor was inaugurated without issue on January 1st, 2023.

But a seven days after, on January 8th, many his followers attacked and damaged public facilities in the national capital, Brasília.

The law enforcement intervened and around fifteen hundred individuals were detained.

The magistrates found that the protesters had been provoked by him whose scheme, they said, was for the Brazilian military to take action, bring back stability and bring him back to power.

At the moment, the legal team called the decades-long sentence "absurdly excessive.

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

The former president called the legal proceedings a political persecution and said it was designed to prevent him participating in the 2026 national vote.