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Jair Bolsonaro has been taken into custody after authorities found he posed a concrete flight risk while under domestic detention.

The former head of state was convicted of orchestrating a armed takeover in last fall and handed more than a 27-year term in jail, but he continued under confinement pending court reviews.

High Court Judge the presiding justice said the move to detain the septuagenarian politician was a precautionary step after "new facts" emerged.

This involved attempting to break his tracking device and a invitation to a supporters' gathering that could facilitate a potential flight.

Legal Document Reveals Escape Risks

In a paperwork permitting the arrest, the judge said intelligence from the facility tracking Bolsonaro's house arrest suggested the former leader's aim to disable the surveillance device to ensure success in his flight.

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

His offspring, Flávio, who works as a congressional representative, called for a gathering of his followers near the former president's residence to take place on the weekend.

His son wrote on digital networks on last Friday: "Are you going to fight for your nation, or observe everything from your smartphone there on your sofa? I invite you to fight with us."

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

Foreign Shelter Risks

Part of the judge's ruling was the chance of his "relocation to embassies near the dwelling, considering that the investigations revealed a record of organizing to ask for protection through a diplomatic representation", a declaration said.

The court filing highlights that the US embassy in the federal district, the capital city, is located around approximately 13 kilometers from Bolsonaro's home.

Global Responses

The former president's legal troubles have provoked anger from fellow populist conservative American leader President Trump, leading him to enact a 50% tariff on Brazilian product imports.

The former president is being kept in a federal law enforcement building in the capital and will have a detention review on the following day.

Recent Legal Requests

It was only on Friday that the former president's lawyers asked the High Court to permit him to complete his entire prison term under home confinement, with digital surveillance.

They also asked that Bolsonaro be authorized to depart his residence for medical care, saying he demanded ongoing care for lung conditions and other illnesses.

Context of Sentencing

He was convicted of heading a plot aimed at keeping him in power after he failed to win the 2022 election to his ideological adversary, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Top judicial officials said that he was aware of a plan which encompassed plans to murder the current president and his vice-presidential running mate, Alckmin, and to imprison and murder Alexandre de Moraes - the Supreme Court justice who has been overseeing the former president's case.

The plot was stopped because it couldn't obtain the support of the military leaders. The current president was inaugurated without incident on the first day of 2023.

But a following week, on January 8th, thousands of Bolsonaro supporters stormed and vandalised public facilities in the national capital, the capital city.

The police intervened and around 1,500 people were detained.

The justices found that the protesters had been incited by the former president whose scheme, they said, was for the country's army to take action, restore order and reinstate his authority.

At the period, his attorneys called the 27 years and three months sentence "absurdly excessive.

He was also prohibited from campaigning for office until 2060 - a decade minus two years after the conclusion of his imprisonment.

The former president called the trial a "witch hunt and said it was aimed at blocking him participating in the 2026 national vote.