Jair Bolsonaro has been taken into custody after authorities concluded he posed a concrete flight risk while under house arrest.
The ex-president was convicted of planning a military coup in last fall and sentenced more than a 27-year term in incarceration, but he was staying under home detention pending appeals.
Brazilian Supreme Court Justice the presiding justice said the action to imprison the elderly politician was a safety action after recent developments came to light.
This encompassed trying to remove his electronic bracelet and a call for a supporters' gathering that could facilitate a possible escape.
Court Filing Details Escape Concerns
In a paperwork permitting the arrest, the judge said intelligence from the unit overseeing the former president's confinement suggested the ex-president's "intention to break the surveillance device to secure accomplishment in his flight.
This, it said, would be "facilitated by the chaos caused by the gathering called by his son.
His child, Flávio Bolsonaro, who holds office as a legislator, called for a meeting of his supporters near his father's house to take place on Saturday night.
The senator wrote on social media on the previous day: "Are you going to fight for your nation, or see it all from your mobile device there on your couch? I invite you to struggle with us."
He said the vigil would be so followers could offer prayers for his health and for the restoration of democratic rule in our nation."
Embassy Asylum Concerns
Part of the judge's decision was the potential of his transfer to foreign missions near the home, considering that the investigations revealed a background of organizing to request asylum through a consular facility", a statement said.
The legal document emphasizes that the US embassy in the capital, the capital city, is positioned around 13km from the former president's residence.
International Reactions
The former president's legal troubles have drawn the ire of fellow right-wing populist American leader President Trump, causing him to enact a 50% tariff on Brazilian product imports.
The former president is being held in a Federal Police station in Brazil's capital city and will undergo a detention review on the following day.
Latest Court Petitions
It was only on Friday that the former president's lawyers asked the High Court to allow him to fulfill his full incarceration period under house arrest, with digital surveillance.
They also petitioned that Bolsonaro be permitted to exit his dwelling for medical care, saying he demanded regular treatment for respiratory ailments and other illnesses.
Details of Guilty Verdict
The former president was convicted of leading a conspiracy aimed at keeping him in power after he lost the presidential race to his ideological adversary, President Lula.
Top judicial officials said that he had knowledge of a plot which included plans to kill Lula and his running partner, his vice-presidential candidate, and to arrest and execute Justice Moraes - the Supreme Court justice who has been overseeing Bolsonaro's trial.
The scheme was prevented because it didn't receive the backing of the armed forces officials. Lula was sworn in without issue on January 1st, 2023.
But a following week, on January 8th, many Bolsonaro supporters invaded and destroyed public facilities in the capital, the capital city.
The law enforcement stepped in and around approximately 1,500 persons were arrested.
The magistrates found that the rioters had been encouraged by Bolsonaro whose strategy, they said, was for the national armed forces to intervene, bring back stability and return him to office.
At the period, his attorneys called the decades-long sentence unreasonably severe".
He was also barred from running for public office until twenty-sixty - a decade minus two years after the end of his sentence.
The one-time head of state called the legal proceedings a targeted investigation" and said it was intended to stop him participating in the next presidential race.
