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The former Brazilian leader has been detained after authorities determined he posed a definite escape threat while under home confinement.

The one-time leader was sentenced of orchestrating a armed takeover in last fall and given more than a 27-year term in incarceration, but he continued under house arrest pending legal challenges.

Top Judicial Official Justice Moraes said the decision to arrest the elderly politician was a preventative measure after "new facts" emerged.

This involved attempting to break his electronic bracelet and a summons to a public vigil that could enable a possible escape.

Court Filing Details Flight Fears

In a filing authorising the custody, the judge said intelligence from the centre monitoring the former president's confinement suggested the ex-president's aim to disable the tracking monitor to ensure success in his escape.

This, it said, would be made easier by the disorder caused by the protest called by his offspring.

His child, Flávio Bolsonaro, who serves as a legislator, called for a assembly of his followers near the former president's residence to take place on Saturday evening.

His son wrote on social media on Friday: Will you battle for your homeland, or see it all from your mobile device there on your couch? I urge you to struggle with us."

He said the vigil would be so followers could seek divine intervention for his physical condition and for the reestablishment of democratic governance in our land."

Foreign Shelter Risks

Part of the judge's determination was the chance of the former president's "relocation to embassies near the dwelling, considering that the inquiries revealed a history of planning to ask for protection through a embassy office", a declaration said.

The judicial paperwork emphasizes that the US embassy in the capital, Brasilia, is positioned around 8 miles from Bolsonaro's home.

Worldwide Consequences

The former president's legal troubles have provoked anger from fellow conservative nationalist US President President Trump, leading him to implement a half-rate duty on Brazilian product imports.

The former president is being detained in a national police facility in the capital and will experience a detention review on the next day.

Latest Court Petitions

It was only on Friday that the former president's lawyers asked the Supreme Court to allow him to complete his entire prison term under domestic detention, with digital surveillance.

They also requested that the former president be permitted to leave his home for healthcare, saying he needed frequent medical attention for lung conditions and other health problems.

Context of Sentencing

Bolsonaro was determined responsible of orchestrating a scheme aimed at retaining his authority after he lost the 2022 election to his political opponent, President Lula.

Supreme Court justices said that he knew of a plan which encompassed plans to assassinate Lula and his VP candidate, his vice-presidential candidate, and to imprison and murder Alexandre de Moraes - the top judicial official who has been overseeing the former president's case.

The conspiracy was thwarted because it didn't receive the support of the army and air force commanders. His successor was inaugurated without incident on January 1st, 2023.

But a week later, on the eighth of January, many his backers stormed and vandalised official structures in the capital, Brasília.

The police took action and around fifteen hundred individuals were detained.

The judges found that the protesters had been incited by him whose strategy, they said, was for the country's army to intervene, reestablish control and reinstate his authority.

At the period, the legal team called the decades-long sentence extremely harsh.

He was also prohibited from seeking elected position until 2060 - a decade minus two years after the end of his sentence.

The ex-leader called the trial a "witch hunt and said it was intended to stop him running in the 2026 national vote.