🔗 Share this article

Jair Bolsonaro has been detained after authorities concluded he posed a concrete flight risk while under house arrest.

The one-time leader was convicted of plotting a government overthrow in the ninth month and handed more than 27 years in prison, but he continued under home detention pending legal challenges.

Brazilian Supreme Court Justice the presiding justice said the move to detain the septuagenarian politician was a precautionary step after "new facts" emerged.

This involved trying to remove his tracking device and a invitation to a demonstration that could "allow for a chance to flee".

Judicial Records Show Escape Risks

In a paperwork permitting the detention, the judge said information from the unit overseeing the former president's confinement suggested the ex-president's "intention to break the tracking monitor to ensure success in his flight.

This, it said, would be made easier by the chaos caused by the protest called by his son.

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

His son wrote on online platforms on last Friday: Will you battle for your homeland, or see it all from your smartphone there on your sofa? I urge you to struggle with us."

He said the gathering would be so followers could offer prayers for his physical condition and for the restoration of democratic rule in our nation."

Foreign Shelter Risks

Part of the judge's ruling was the chance of the former president's "relocation to embassies near the dwelling, considering that the probes revealed a history of arranging to ask for protection through a consular facility", a statement said.

The court filing emphasizes that the United States embassy in the capital, the capital city, is positioned around 13km from Bolsonaro's home.

International Reactions

His judicial problems have provoked anger from fellow populist conservative American leader President Trump, prompting him to implement a fifty percent tax on Brazilian product imports.

The former president is being held in a federal law enforcement building in the capital and will undergo a imprisonment assessment on Sunday.

Recent Legal Requests

It was only on last Friday that the his legal team asked the Supreme Court to allow him to complete his entire prison term under home confinement, with electronic monitoring.

They also asked that he be authorized to depart his residence for medical care, saying he demanded frequent medical attention for pulmonary infections and other illnesses.

Details of Guilty Verdict

Bolsonaro was determined responsible of orchestrating a plot aimed at retaining his authority after he failed to win the 2022 election to his left-wing rival, President Lula.

Top judicial officials said that he had knowledge of a plan which included plans to murder the current president and his running partner, Alckmin, and to arrest and execute Alexandre de Moraes - the Supreme Court justice who has been managing the former president's case.

The conspiracy was stopped because it didn't receive the support of the army and air force commanders. Lula was inaugurated without incident on January 1st, 2023.

But a week later, on January 8th, numerous his backers invaded and destroyed government buildings in the national capital, Brazil's capital.

The security forces stepped in and around approximately 1,500 persons were taken into custody.

The judges found that the rioters had been provoked by Bolsonaro whose strategy, they said, was for the country's army to step in, restore order and return him to office.

At the moment, Bolsonaro's lawyers called the 27 years and three months sentence "absurdly excessive.

He was also barred from running for public office until twenty-sixty - a decade minus two years after the end of his sentence.

The former president called the court case a "witch hunt and said it was aimed at blocking him competing in the next presidential race.