🔗 Share this article

Jair Bolsonaro has been arrested after authorities concluded he posed a definite escape threat while under home confinement.

The ex-president was sentenced of plotting a military coup in last fall and handed more than over two decades in incarceration, but he continued under house arrest pending legal challenges.

Brazilian Supreme Court Justice the presiding justice said the move to detain the 70-year-old politician was a preventative measure after recent developments came to light.

This involved seeking to disable his electronic bracelet and a summons to a public vigil that could enable a possible escape.

Judicial Records Show Escape Risks

In a paperwork permitting the detention, Justice Moraes said intelligence from the centre monitoring Bolsonaro's house arrest suggested the ex-president's "intention to break the surveillance device to guarantee victory in his getaway".

This, it said, would be assisted by the disorder caused by the demonstration called by his son.

His son, his son Flávio, who holds office as a senator, called for a gathering of his followers near Bolsonaro's home to take place on Saturday night.

His son wrote on online platforms on last Friday: Will you battle for your homeland, or see it all from your smartphone there on your sofa? I call on you to struggle with us."

He said the vigil would be so backers could offer prayers for his health and for the return of democracy in our nation."

Foreign Shelter Risks

Part of the judge's ruling was the chance of his transfer to foreign missions near the residence, considering that the investigations revealed a record of organizing to ask for protection through a embassy office", a statement said.

The judicial paperwork underscores that the United States embassy in the capital, the capital city, is positioned around 13km from the former president's residence.

International Reactions

His judicial problems have generated frustration from fellow right-wing populist American leader Trump, leading him to enact a fifty percent tax on goods coming from Brazil.

The former president is being detained in a federal law enforcement building in Brazil's capital city and will have a detention review on the following day.

Latest Court Petitions

It was only on the previous day that the former president's lawyers asked the Supreme Court to permit him to serve his whole jail sentence under house arrest, with digital surveillance.

They also requested that Bolsonaro be authorized to depart his residence for healthcare, saying he needed frequent medical attention for respiratory ailments and other illnesses.

Details of Guilty Verdict

He was convicted of heading a scheme aimed at keeping him in power after he was defeated in the 2022 election to his political opponent, Lula.

Supreme Court justices said that he was aware of a plan which included plans to murder the current president and his VP candidate, Geraldo Alckmin, and to imprison and murder Justice Moraes - the Supreme Court justice who has been managing Bolsonaro's trial.

The conspiracy was stopped because it failed to get the backing of the military leaders. His successor was inaugurated without incident on 1 January 2023.

But a week later, on January 8th, many Bolsonaro supporters attacked and damaged official structures in the federal district, Brazil's capital.

The police stepped in and around approximately 1,500 persons were taken into custody.

The judges found that the protesters had been encouraged by Bolsonaro whose scheme, they said, was for the national armed forces to take action, restore order and reinstate his authority.

At the time, his attorneys called the 27 years and three months sentence extremely harsh.

He was also prohibited from seeking elected position until twenty-sixty - a decade minus two years after the end of his sentence.

The ex-leader called the court case a "witch hunt and said it was aimed at blocking him competing in the next presidential race.