Jair Bolsonaro has been detained after authorities concluded he posed a concrete flight risk while under domestic detention.
The one-time leader was sentenced of orchestrating a armed takeover in September and handed more than over two decades in incarceration, but he remained under house arrest pending court reviews.
Top Judicial Official Alexandre de Moraes said the action to imprison the 70-year-old politician was a preventative measure after recent developments emerged.
This involved trying to remove his electronic bracelet and a call for a public vigil that could facilitate a possible escape.
Legal Document Reveals Escape Concerns
In a paperwork permitting the arrest, the judge said intelligence from the facility tracking the former president's confinement suggested the ex-president's plan to remove the surveillance device to secure accomplishment in his flight.
This, it said, would be "facilitated by the confusion caused by the gathering called by his son.
His offspring, his son Flávio, who serves as a senator, called for a gathering of his backers near his father's house to take place on the weekend.
The senator wrote on social media on Friday: "Are you going to fight for your nation, or watch it all from your phone there on your settee? I call on you to battle with us."
He said the gathering would be so supporters could offer prayers for his physical condition and for the return of democracy in our country."
Embassy Asylum Concerns
Part of the magistrate's determination was the chance of Bolsonaro's "relocation to embassies near the home, considering that the inquiries revealed a background of arranging to ask for protection through a embassy office", a statement said.
The court filing emphasizes that the United States embassy in the federal district, Brasilia, is located around 13km from his dwelling.
Global Responses
His judicial problems have drawn the ire of fellow populist conservative US President Donald Trump, causing him to implement a fifty percent tax on Brazilian product imports.
He is being detained in a federal law enforcement building in Brasilia and will undergo a custody hearing on the following day.
Latest Court Petitions
It was only on last Friday that the his legal team asked the High Court to permit him to fulfill his full incarceration period under home confinement, with digital surveillance.
They also petitioned that Bolsonaro be allowed to leave his home for healthcare, saying he needed frequent medical attention for pulmonary infections and other illnesses.
Background on Conviction
Bolsonaro was found guilty of leading a conspiracy aimed at keeping him in power after he failed to win the 2022 election to his left-wing rival, President Lula.
High Court judges said that he was aware of a plan which included plans to kill Lula and his vice-presidential running mate, his vice-presidential candidate, and to detain and kill the presiding judge - the Supreme Court justice who has been managing the former president's case.
The plot was thwarted because it didn't receive the support of the army and air force commanders. The current president was took office without problem on the first day of 2023.
But a seven days after, on the eighth of January, thousands of his followers stormed and vandalised public facilities in the national capital, the capital city.
The police stepped in and around fifteen hundred individuals were taken into custody.
The justices found that the protesters had been provoked by Bolsonaro whose scheme, they said, was for the national armed forces to take action, restore order and reinstate his authority.
At the time, the legal team called the decades-long sentence unreasonably severe".
He was also banned from campaigning for office until the year 2060 - eight years after the conclusion of his imprisonment.
The ex-leader called the legal proceedings a targeted investigation" and said it was aimed at blocking him participating in the 2026 national vote.
