Jair Bolsonaro has been detained after authorities concluded he posed a definite escape threat while under domestic detention.
The one-time leader was convicted of orchestrating a military coup in last fall and handed more than 27 years in jail, but he was staying under home detention pending appeals.
High Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes said the decision to arrest the septuagenarian politician was a safety action after fresh information came to light.
This included trying to remove his electronic bracelet and a invitation to a demonstration that could enable a chance to flee".
Legal Document Reveals Escape Concerns
In a filing authorising the arrest, Justice Moraes said information from the centre monitoring the former president's confinement suggested the former leader's aim to disable the electronic ankle bracelet to ensure success in his flight.
This, it said, would be made easier by the disorder caused by the protest called by his offspring.
His offspring, his son Flávio, who serves as a senator, called for a meeting of his backers near Bolsonaro's home to take place on Saturday evening.
The senator wrote on digital networks on the previous day: "Are you going to fight for your homeland, or observe everything from your smartphone there on your settee? I invite you to battle with us."
He said the gathering would be so followers could "pray for his physical condition and for the restoration of democratic rule in our country."
Embassy Asylum Concerns
Part of the judge's ruling was the possibility of Bolsonaro's "relocation to embassies near the residence, considering that the investigations revealed a background of planning to seek refuge through a consular facility", a statement said.
The court filing emphasizes that the United States embassy in the federal district, Brasilia, is situated around 13km from the former president's residence.
International Reactions
The former president's legal troubles have generated frustration from fellow conservative nationalist American leader Donald Trump, leading him to implement a fifty percent tax on goods coming from Brazil.
He is being detained in a federal law enforcement building in Brasilia and will experience a imprisonment assessment on Sunday.
Recent Legal Requests
It was only on Friday that the his legal team asked the Top Court to allow him to serve his whole jail sentence under home confinement, with tracking devices.
They also asked that he be allowed to exit his dwelling for healthcare, saying he demanded ongoing care for respiratory ailments and other illnesses.
Background on Conviction
The former president was found guilty of heading a scheme aimed at keeping him in power after he failed to win the 2022 election to his ideological adversary, President Lula.
High Court judges said that he was aware of a plan which involved plans to kill the current president and his vice-presidential running mate, Alckmin, and to arrest and execute the presiding judge - the Supreme Court justice who has been presiding over his judicial proceedings.
The plot was thwarted because it failed to get the endorsement of the army and air force commanders. His successor was sworn in without issue on the first day of 2023.
But a following week, on the eighth of January, thousands of his backers stormed and vandalised official structures in the capital, Brazil's capital.
The police intervened and around approximately 1,500 persons were arrested.
The magistrates found that the demonstrators had been incited by the former president whose scheme, they said, was for the country's army to intervene, restore order and reinstate his authority.
At the moment, his attorneys called the decades-long sentence unreasonably severe".
He was also prohibited from running for public office until twenty-sixty - a decade minus two years after the conclusion of his imprisonment.
The former president called the trial a targeted investigation" and said it was designed to prevent him competing in the 2026 presidential election.
