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Jair Bolsonaro has been arrested after authorities determined he posed a concrete flight risk while under domestic detention.

The one-time leader was found guilty of planning a military coup in September and handed more than over two decades in jail, but he continued under house arrest pending legal challenges.

Top Judicial Official Alexandre de Moraes said the action to imprison the elderly politician was a precautionary step after "new facts" emerged.

This included seeking to disable his ankle monitor and a call for a supporters' gathering that could facilitate a potential flight.

Legal Document Reveals Escape Risks

In a filing authorising the detention, the judge said data from the facility tracking Bolsonaro's house arrest suggested the ex-president's "intention to break the surveillance device to secure accomplishment in his getaway".

This, it said, would be made easier by the disorder caused by the gathering called by his child.

His offspring, Flávio, who serves as a congressional representative, called for a gathering of his supporters near Bolsonaro's home to take place on Saturday night.

Flávio Bolsonaro wrote on social media on last Friday: "Are you going to fight for your homeland, or watch it all from your phone there on your couch? I call on you to fight with us."

He said the gathering would be so supporters could "pray for his health and for the return of democracy in our country."

Embassy Asylum Concerns

Part of the magistrate's decision was the potential of the former president's transfer to foreign missions near the home, considering that the inquiries revealed a background of planning to ask for protection through a consular facility", a announcement said.

The judicial paperwork highlights that the American diplomatic mission in the national capital, Brasilia, is situated around 13km from his dwelling.

International Reactions

Bolsonaro's legal woes have provoked anger from fellow conservative nationalist American leader Trump, causing him to implement a fifty percent tax on goods coming from Brazil.

Bolsonaro is being kept in a national police facility in Brasilia and will experience a custody hearing on the next day.

Latest Court Petitions

It was only on last Friday that the ex-leader's attorneys asked the High Court to allow him to complete his entire prison term under domestic detention, with digital surveillance.

They also petitioned that Bolsonaro be permitted to leave his home for healthcare, saying he needed frequent medical attention for respiratory ailments and other health problems.

Background on Conviction

The former president was convicted of heading a scheme aimed at retaining his authority after he was defeated in the national vote to his ideological adversary, Lula.

Supreme Court justices said that he knew of a plot which included plans to murder the current president 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 Bolsonaro's trial.

The plot was prevented because it didn't receive the endorsement of the army and air force commanders. Lula was sworn in without incident on the first day of 2023.

But a following week, on January 8th, many his followers stormed and vandalised public facilities in the national capital, Brasília.

The law enforcement took action and around 1,500 people were arrested.

The judges found that the rioters had been provoked by the former president whose scheme, they said, was for the Brazilian military to intervene, reestablish control and return him to office.

At the moment, his attorneys called the decades-long sentence "absurdly excessive.

He was also barred from seeking elected position until 2060 - a decade minus two years after the conclusion of his imprisonment.

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