Jair Bolsonaro has been arrested after authorities found he posed a serious risk of fleeing while under home confinement.
The ex-president was sentenced of orchestrating a armed takeover in September and given more than a 27-year term in jail, but he remained under home detention pending court reviews.
Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes said the move to detain the septuagenarian politician was a safety action after recent developments came to light.
This involved attempting to break his ankle monitor and a invitation to a demonstration that could enable a potential flight.
Court Filing Details Escape Risks
In a paperwork permitting the arrest, the magistrate said data from the facility tracking the former president's confinement suggested the one-time head of state's plan to remove the tracking monitor to secure accomplishment in his escape.
This, it said, would be assisted by the chaos caused by the protest called by his son.
His child, Flávio Bolsonaro, who serves as a legislator, called for a assembly of his backers near his father's house to take place on Saturday night.
Flávio Bolsonaro wrote on social media on Friday: Do you plan to struggle for your homeland, or see it all from your phone there on your sofa? I urge you to fight with us."
He said the vigil would be so backers could "pray for his physical condition and for the restoration of democratic rule in our nation."
Diplomatic Refuge Fears
Part of Justice Moraes's decision was the possibility of his move to foreign missions near the dwelling, considering that the probes revealed a record of arranging to seek refuge through a embassy office", a declaration said.
The judicial paperwork emphasizes that the United States embassy in the national capital, the capital city, is situated around 13km from his dwelling.
Global Responses
The former president's legal troubles have generated frustration from fellow conservative nationalist American leader President Trump, prompting him to implement a fifty percent tax on goods coming from Brazil.
He is being detained in a national police facility in Brasilia and will have a custody hearing on the following day.
Latest Court Petitions
It was only on last Friday that the former president's lawyers asked the Top Court to permit him to complete his entire prison term under domestic detention, with tracking devices.
They also asked that Bolsonaro be allowed to exit his dwelling for healthcare, saying he needed frequent medical attention for respiratory ailments and other illnesses.
Context of Sentencing
He was determined responsible of leading a conspiracy aimed at retaining his authority after he was defeated in the national vote to his left-wing rival, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Top judicial officials said that he knew of a scheme which encompassed plans to kill the current president and his running partner, Geraldo Alckmin, and to detain and kill the presiding judge - the top judicial official who has been overseeing Bolsonaro's trial.
The scheme was prevented because it failed to get the support of the military leaders. Lula was took office without incident on the first day of 2023.
But a week later, on 8 January, numerous Bolsonaro supporters invaded and destroyed public facilities in the capital, Brasília.
The police intervened and around 1,500 people were arrested.
The magistrates found that the protesters had been provoked by the former president whose strategy, they said, was for the Brazilian military to intervene, bring back stability and return him to office.
At the period, Bolsonaro's lawyers called the decades-long sentence extremely harsh.
He was also prohibited from running for public office until twenty-sixty - a decade minus two years after the conclusion of his imprisonment.
The one-time head of state called the court case a political persecution and said it was intended to stop him competing in the 2026 presidential election.
