🔗 Share this article

The former Brazilian leader has been detained after authorities found he posed a definite escape threat while under house arrest.

The ex-president was found guilty of orchestrating a military coup in last fall and given more than over two decades in jail, but he was staying under confinement pending court reviews.

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

This involved seeking to disable his electronic bracelet and a call for a demonstration that could facilitate a possible escape.

Court Filing Details Escape Risks

In a document approving the arrest, Justice Moraes said intelligence from the centre monitoring the former president's confinement suggested the one-time head of state's aim to disable the surveillance device to guarantee victory in his getaway".

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

His son, Flávio Bolsonaro, who serves as a congressional representative, called for a assembly of his backers near his father's house to take place on Saturday evening.

Flávio Bolsonaro wrote on online platforms on the previous day: Do you plan to struggle for your homeland, or see it all from your smartphone there on your settee? I call on you to struggle with us."

He said the gathering would be so followers could seek divine intervention for his well-being and for the restoration of democratic rule in our nation."

Diplomatic Refuge Fears

Part of Justice Moraes's decision was the possibility of the former president's "relocation to diplomatic missions near the home, considering that the probes revealed a record of organizing to request asylum through a consular facility", a announcement said.

The legal document underscores that the United States embassy in the national capital, Brasilia, is positioned around 13km from Bolsonaro's home.

Global Responses

His judicial problems have provoked anger from fellow right-wing populist American leader President Trump, causing him to enact a 50% tariff on Brazilian product imports.

He is being detained in a national police facility in Brazil's capital city and will experience a detention review on Sunday.

Latest Court Petitions

It was only on the previous day that the his legal team asked the Supreme Court to allow him to fulfill his full incarceration period under domestic detention, with digital surveillance.

They also petitioned that Bolsonaro be permitted to depart his residence for medical treatment, saying he needed regular treatment for pulmonary infections and other ailments.

Context of Sentencing

Bolsonaro was determined responsible of orchestrating a scheme aimed at maintaining his control after he was defeated in the presidential race to his political opponent, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

High Court judges said that he had knowledge of a scheme which encompassed plans to assassinate Lula and his running partner, Geraldo Alckmin, and to imprison and murder Alexandre de Moraes - the top judicial official who has been managing the former president's case.

The conspiracy was stopped because it failed to get the endorsement of the armed forces officials. The current president was inaugurated without incident on 1 January 2023.

But a following week, on the eighth of January, thousands of his backers invaded and destroyed government buildings in the capital, the capital city.

The security forces took action and around 1,500 people were taken into custody.

The judges found that the rioters had been incited by Bolsonaro whose strategy, they said, was for the Brazilian military to intervene, bring back stability and reinstate his authority.

At the period, the legal team called the over 27-year sentence extremely harsh.

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

The former president called the trial a political persecution and said it was designed to prevent him competing in the next presidential race.