🔗 Share this article

The former Brazilian leader has been taken into custody after authorities found he posed a serious risk of fleeing while under home confinement.

The former head of state was found guilty of plotting a military coup in last fall and sentenced more than a 27-year term in prison, but he was staying under home detention pending court reviews.

High Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes said the action to imprison the elderly politician was a precautionary step after fresh information emerged.

This involved seeking to disable his electronic bracelet and a summons to a demonstration that could "allow for a chance to flee".

Court Filing Details Escape Risks

In a filing authorising the custody, the magistrate said intelligence from the facility tracking Bolsonaro's house arrest suggested the one-time head of state's aim to disable the surveillance device to secure accomplishment in his getaway".

This, it said, would be assisted by the confusion caused by the protest called by his child.

His offspring, Flávio Bolsonaro, who works as a legislator, called for a meeting of his followers near his father's house to take place on Saturday night.

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

He said the vigil would be so followers could seek divine intervention for his health and for the return of democracy in our country."

Foreign Shelter Risks

Part of Justice Moraes's ruling was the possibility of Bolsonaro's transfer to embassies near the dwelling, considering that the probes revealed a record of arranging to request asylum through a consular facility", a statement said.

The court filing underscores that the American diplomatic mission in the federal district, Brazil's capital, is located around approximately 13 kilometers from Bolsonaro's home.

International Reactions

The former president's legal troubles have drawn the ire of fellow right-wing populist American leader Donald Trump, causing him to enact a fifty percent tax on Brazilian product imports.

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

Latest Court Petitions

It was only on last Friday that the ex-leader's attorneys asked the High Court to permit him to complete his entire prison term under domestic detention, with digital surveillance.

They also asked that the former president be permitted to exit his dwelling for healthcare, saying he required regular treatment for respiratory ailments and other health problems.

Context of Sentencing

Bolsonaro was determined responsible of orchestrating a plot aimed at keeping him in power after he failed to win the 2022 election to his ideological adversary, President Lula.

Top judicial officials said that he had knowledge of a plot which involved plans to murder the current president and his VP candidate, Geraldo Alckmin, and to detain and kill Alexandre de Moraes - the top judicial official who has been managing the former president's case.

The plot was prevented because it failed to get the endorsement of the armed forces officials. His successor was inaugurated without issue on the first day of 2023.

But a following week, on 8 January, thousands of his followers invaded and destroyed public facilities in the capital, Brasília.

The law enforcement stepped in and around fifteen hundred individuals were detained.

The judges found that the rioters had been encouraged by the former president whose scheme, they said, was for the Brazilian military to step in, restore order and bring him back to power.

At the moment, the legal team called the decades-long sentence "absurdly excessive.

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

The former president called the legal proceedings a targeted investigation" and said it was intended to stop him running in the next presidential race.