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

The former head of state was sentenced of orchestrating a armed takeover in last fall and handed more than 27 years in prison, but he continued under home detention pending legal challenges.

Top Judicial Official Justice Moraes said the action to imprison the 70-year-old politician was a preventative measure after "new facts" came to light.

This included attempting to break his tracking device and a summons to a supporters' gathering that could "allow for a potential flight.

Court Filing Details Escape Concerns

In a filing authorising the arrest, the magistrate said data from the unit overseeing the former president's confinement suggested the former leader's plan to remove the tracking monitor to ensure success in his getaway".

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

His child, Flávio Bolsonaro, who serves as a senator, called for a assembly of his supporters near Bolsonaro's home to take place on Saturday evening.

Flávio Bolsonaro wrote on online platforms on Friday: "Are you going to fight for your nation, or see it all from your smartphone 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 Justice Moraes's determination was the chance of Bolsonaro's "relocation to foreign missions near the home, considering that the investigations revealed a record of arranging to request asylum through a consular facility", a declaration said.

The court filing highlights that the United States embassy in the national capital, the capital city, is situated around approximately 13 kilometers from his dwelling.

Global Responses

The former president's legal troubles have generated frustration from fellow populist conservative United States President Donald Trump, prompting him to impose a 50% tariff on imports of Brazilian goods.

He is being detained in a federal law enforcement building in Brazil's capital city and will have a detention review on the next day.

Recent Legal Requests

It was only on the previous day that the former president's lawyers asked the High Court to authorize him to complete his entire prison term under domestic detention, with tracking devices.

They also requested that the former president be permitted to exit his dwelling for medical care, saying he demanded frequent medical attention for pulmonary infections and other ailments.

Context of Sentencing

He was found guilty of orchestrating a plot aimed at keeping him in power after he lost the national vote to his political opponent, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Supreme Court justices said that he knew of a plan which involved plans to murder Lula and his running partner, his vice-presidential candidate, and to imprison and murder Justice Moraes - the High Court judge who has been overseeing Bolsonaro's trial.

The plot was thwarted because it failed to get the support of the army and air force commanders. His successor was inaugurated without incident on 1 January 2023.

But a following week, on the eighth of January, many his backers stormed and vandalised 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 demonstrators had been encouraged by the former president whose plan, they said, was for the national armed forces to intervene, restore order and reinstate his authority.

At the time, the legal team called the 27 years and three months sentence extremely harsh.

He was also barred from campaigning for office until twenty-sixty - a decade minus two years after the completion of his term.

The former president called the court case a political persecution and said it was intended to stop him running in the next presidential race.