🔗 Share this article

Bolsonaro has been detained after authorities determined he posed a definite escape threat while under domestic detention.

The one-time leader was sentenced of planning a government overthrow in the ninth month and given more than 27 years in jail, but he continued under confinement pending appeals.

Top Judicial Official Justice Moraes said the move to detain the septuagenarian politician was a preventative measure after "new facts" came to light.

This included trying to remove his tracking device and a summons to a supporters' gathering that could facilitate a potential flight.

Judicial Records Show Escape Concerns

In a document approving the detention, Justice Moraes said intelligence from the facility tracking Bolsonaro's house arrest suggested the one-time head of state's aim to disable the electronic ankle bracelet to secure accomplishment in his escape.

This, it said, would be "facilitated by the disorder caused by the protest called by his son.

His child, his son Flávio, who holds office as a senator, called for a assembly of his backers near his father's house to take place on the weekend.

Flávio Bolsonaro wrote on social media on last Friday: "Are you going to fight for your nation, or observe everything from your smartphone there on your couch? I invite you to battle with us."

He said the gathering would be so supporters could "pray for his well-being and for the reestablishment of democratic governance in our country."

Embassy Asylum Concerns

Part of Justice Moraes's determination was the potential of Bolsonaro's "relocation to diplomatic missions near the dwelling, considering that the probes revealed a record of organizing to request asylum through a embassy office", a announcement said.

The legal document emphasizes that the American diplomatic mission in the national capital, the capital city, is positioned around approximately 13 kilometers from the former president's residence.

International Reactions

His judicial problems have drawn the ire of fellow populist conservative US President Trump, leading him to enact a 50% tariff on goods coming from Brazil.

The former president is being held in a federal law enforcement building in Brasilia and will experience a detention review on the following day.

Recent Legal Requests

It was only on Friday that the ex-leader's attorneys asked the Top Court to authorize him to serve his whole jail sentence under house arrest, with tracking devices.

They also asked that Bolsonaro be allowed to leave his home for medical treatment, saying he demanded ongoing care for lung conditions and other illnesses.

Details of Guilty Verdict

He was found guilty of leading a scheme aimed at keeping him in power after he was defeated in the 2022 election to his ideological adversary, Lula.

Supreme Court justices said that he had knowledge of a plot which involved plans to kill his opponent and his vice-presidential running mate, his vice-presidential candidate, and to arrest and execute the presiding judge - the Supreme Court justice who has been overseeing Bolsonaro's trial.

The conspiracy was thwarted because it failed to get the support of the military leaders. The current president was took office without incident on January 1st, 2023.

But a week later, on January 8th, many his backers attacked and damaged government buildings in the federal district, Brazil's capital.

The security forces intervened and around fifteen hundred individuals were detained.

The justices found that the demonstrators had been incited by him whose plan, they said, was for the national armed forces to take action, bring back stability and return him to office.

At the time, Bolsonaro's lawyers called the 27 years and three months sentence "absurdly excessive.

He was also banned from campaigning for 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 "witch hunt and said it was intended to stop him competing in the 2026 presidential election.