🔗 Share this article

Jair Bolsonaro has been arrested after authorities found he posed a serious risk of fleeing while under home confinement.

The ex-president was convicted of plotting a military coup in the ninth month and sentenced more than 27 years in prison, but he remained under home detention pending legal challenges.

Top Judicial Official the presiding justice said the decision to arrest the septuagenarian politician was a preventative measure after recent developments emerged.

This involved trying to remove his electronic bracelet and a invitation to a demonstration that could enable a potential flight.

Judicial Records Show Escape Concerns

In a document approving the custody, the magistrate said intelligence from the unit overseeing the former president's confinement suggested the former leader's "intention to break the surveillance device to guarantee victory in his flight.

This, it said, would be made easier by the disorder caused by the gathering called by his son.

His child, his son Flávio, who serves as a senator, called for a meeting of his followers near his father's house to take place on the weekend.

Flávio Bolsonaro wrote on online platforms on the previous day: "Are you going to fight for your country, or watch it all from your smartphone there on your couch? I urge you to fight with us."

He said the vigil would be so supporters could seek divine intervention for his well-being and for the restoration of democratic rule in our nation."

Embassy Asylum Concerns

Part of the judge's decision was the chance of his move to diplomatic missions near the home, considering that the investigations revealed a record of organizing to request asylum through a embassy office", a announcement said.

The court filing highlights that the United States embassy in the national capital, Brasilia, is positioned around 13km from Bolsonaro's home.

Worldwide Consequences

The former president's legal troubles have provoked anger from fellow right-wing populist United States President Trump, causing him to impose a fifty percent tax on Brazilian product imports.

The former president is being kept in a Federal Police station in the capital and will experience a imprisonment assessment on the next day.

Recent Legal Requests

It was only on the previous day that the his legal team asked the High Court to allow him to serve his whole jail sentence under domestic detention, with tracking devices.

They also requested that the former president be allowed to exit his dwelling for medical care, saying he demanded regular treatment for lung conditions and other health problems.

Details of Guilty Verdict

He was convicted of orchestrating a scheme aimed at retaining his authority after he lost the 2022 election to his ideological adversary, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Top judicial officials said that he knew of a plan which involved plans to kill Lula and his VP candidate, his vice-presidential candidate, and to detain and kill the presiding judge - the High Court judge who has been overseeing Bolsonaro's trial.

The conspiracy was stopped because it failed to get the backing of the armed forces officials. The current president was inaugurated without problem on the first day of 2023.

But a following week, on the eighth of January, thousands of his backers stormed and vandalised official structures in the national capital, the capital city.

The security forces took action and around fifteen hundred individuals were detained.

The justices found that the protesters had been incited by the former president whose strategy, they said, was for the Brazilian military to step in, reestablish control and return him to office.

At the period, the legal team called the over 27-year sentence unreasonably severe".

He was also barred from running for public office until the year 2060 - a decade minus two years after the end of his sentence.

The ex-leader called the legal proceedings a "witch hunt and said it was aimed at blocking him participating in the 2026 national vote.