The former Brazilian president arrested after being declared a escape threat

Jair Bolsonaro has been taken into custody after authorities concluded he posed a concrete flight risk while under home confinement.

The one-time leader was sentenced of plotting a military coup in last fall and handed more than over two decades in incarceration, but he remained under house arrest pending appeals.

High Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes said the move to detain the 70-year-old politician was a preventative measure after "new facts" emerged.

This included trying to remove his ankle monitor and a summons to a supporters' gathering that could facilitate a chance to flee".

Judicial Records Show Flight Fears

In a filing authorising the custody, the judge said information from the centre monitoring the former president's confinement suggested the former leader's plan to remove the tracking monitor to ensure success in his flight.

This, it said, would be "facilitated by the chaos caused by the gathering called by his child.

His offspring, Flávio, who serves as a congressional representative, called for a assembly of his supporters near the former president's residence to take place on Saturday evening.

The senator wrote on social media on the previous day: Will you battle for your country, or watch it all from your phone there on your couch? I call on you to fight with us."

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

Embassy Asylum Concerns

Part of the judge's decision was the potential of Bolsonaro's transfer to embassies near the home, considering that the inquiries revealed a record of arranging to ask for protection through a embassy office", a announcement said.

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

Global Responses

The former president's legal troubles have provoked anger from fellow conservative nationalist US President Trump, leading him to enact a 50% tariff on imports of Brazilian goods.

Bolsonaro is being detained in a Federal Police station in the capital and will undergo a custody hearing on the next day.

Recent Legal Requests

It was only on last Friday that the ex-leader's attorneys asked the Supreme Court to permit him to serve his whole jail sentence under house arrest, with digital surveillance.

They also petitioned that Bolsonaro be permitted to exit his dwelling for healthcare, saying he needed regular treatment for respiratory ailments and other illnesses.

Background on Conviction

The former president was found guilty of orchestrating a conspiracy aimed at retaining his authority after he failed to win the 2022 election to his ideological adversary, President Lula.

Top judicial officials said that he knew of a plan which involved plans to kill the current president and his VP candidate, his vice-presidential candidate, and to imprison and murder the presiding judge - the top judicial official who has been presiding over the former president's case.

The scheme was prevented because it couldn't obtain the backing of the army and air force commanders. The current president was inaugurated without issue on the first day of 2023.

But a week later, on 8 January, thousands of his followers invaded and destroyed official structures in the federal district, the capital city.

The security forces intervened and around approximately 1,500 persons were arrested.

The magistrates found that the rioters had been provoked by the former president whose strategy, they said, was for the national armed forces to step in, reestablish control and return him to office.

At the moment, his attorneys called the 27 years and three months sentence unreasonably severe".

He was also banned from campaigning for office until twenty-sixty - a decade minus two years after the conclusion of his imprisonment.

The former president called the court case a political persecution and said it was intended to stop him participating in the next presidential race.