🔗 Share this article Bolsonaro taken into custody after being declared a flight risk Jair Bolsonaro has been arrested after authorities determined he posed a serious risk of fleeing while under domestic detention. The one-time leader was found guilty of orchestrating a armed takeover in September and given more than over two decades in incarceration, but he remained under confinement pending appeals. High Court Judge Justice Moraes said the move to detain the 70-year-old politician was a precautionary step after recent developments emerged. This included seeking to disable his ankle monitor and a invitation to a demonstration that could enable a possible escape. Judicial Records Show Escape Concerns In a document approving the custody, the judge said data from the facility tracking Bolsonaro's house arrest suggested the former leader's plan to remove the electronic ankle bracelet to secure accomplishment in his getaway". This, it said, would be "facilitated by the confusion caused by the demonstration called by his son. His child, Flávio Bolsonaro, who works as a congressional representative, called for a assembly of his followers near Bolsonaro's home to take place on Saturday evening. Flávio Bolsonaro wrote on online platforms on the previous day: "Are you going to fight for your nation, or watch it all from your smartphone there on your couch? I call on you to struggle with us." He said the demonstration would be so followers could offer prayers for his physical condition and for the restoration of democratic rule in our land." Foreign Shelter Risks Part of the magistrate's determination was the potential of the former president's "relocation to diplomatic missions near the dwelling, considering that the probes revealed a background of planning to request asylum through a embassy office", a statement said. The judicial paperwork emphasizes that the United States embassy in the national capital, the capital city, is located around 13km from the former president's residence. Global Responses The former president's legal troubles have provoked anger from fellow right-wing populist American leader President Trump, causing him to implement a fifty percent tax on Brazilian product imports. He is being detained in a national police facility in the capital and will experience a custody hearing on the following day. Recent Judicial Appeals It was only on last Friday that the ex-leader's attorneys asked the High Court to permit him to fulfill his full incarceration period under house arrest, with electronic monitoring. They also asked that the former president be allowed to leave his home for healthcare, saying he needed frequent medical attention for lung conditions and other health problems. Background on Conviction The former president was convicted of orchestrating a conspiracy aimed at keeping him in power after he lost the national vote to his left-wing rival, President Lula. Supreme Court justices said that he was aware of a scheme which included plans to murder his opponent and his VP candidate, his vice-presidential candidate, and to arrest and execute the presiding judge - the High Court judge who has been managing Bolsonaro's trial. The scheme was thwarted because it couldn't obtain the backing of the armed forces officials. His successor was inaugurated without problem on the first day of 2023. But a following week, on the eighth of January, numerous Bolsonaro supporters attacked and damaged public facilities in the capital, Brazil's capital. The security forces intervened and around 1,500 people were taken into custody. The magistrates found that the demonstrators had been encouraged by the former president whose strategy, they said, was for the country's army to step in, bring back stability and return him to office. At the time, Bolsonaro's lawyers called the decades-long sentence "absurdly excessive. He was also prohibited from campaigning for office until twenty-sixty - a decade minus two years after the completion of his term. The one-time head of state called the trial a "witch hunt and said it was intended to stop him running in the 2026 presidential election.