Jair Bolsonaro has been detained after authorities found he posed a serious risk of fleeing while under home confinement.
The one-time leader was found guilty of orchestrating a armed takeover in September and sentenced more than 27 years in prison, but he continued under confinement pending legal challenges.
Top Judicial Official Justice Moraes said the move to detain the 70-year-old politician was a safety action after "new facts" were revealed.
This included trying to remove his tracking device and a summons to a demonstration that could facilitate a possible escape.
Court Filing Details Escape Risks
In a filing authorising the arrest, the judge said intelligence from the unit overseeing his home detention suggested the one-time head of state's plan to remove the surveillance device to guarantee victory in his escape.
This, it said, would be "facilitated by the disorder caused by the gathering called by his offspring.
His child, Flávio, who works as a senator, called for a meeting of his followers near his father's house to take place on Saturday evening.
Flávio Bolsonaro wrote on digital networks on the previous day: Do you plan to struggle for your homeland, or watch it all from your mobile device there on your couch? I call on you to battle with us."
He said the demonstration would be so followers could offer prayers for his well-being and for the return of democracy in our country."
Embassy Asylum Concerns
Part of the magistrate's determination was the potential of his "relocation to diplomatic missions near the residence, considering that the inquiries revealed a record of planning to seek refuge through a diplomatic representation", a declaration said.
The legal document underscores that the United States embassy in the capital, Brasilia, is situated around 8 miles from the former president's residence.
Global Responses
His judicial problems have drawn the ire of fellow populist conservative American leader Donald Trump, leading him to impose a half-rate duty on goods coming from Brazil.
Bolsonaro is being detained in a federal law enforcement building in the capital and will experience a imprisonment assessment on the next day.
Recent Legal Requests
It was only on last Friday that the former president's lawyers asked the High Court to authorize him to fulfill his full incarceration period under home confinement, with electronic monitoring.
They also requested that Bolsonaro be permitted to depart his residence for medical care, saying he required ongoing care for lung conditions and other illnesses.
Background on Conviction
The former president was convicted of heading a scheme aimed at keeping him in power after he was defeated in the national vote to his ideological adversary, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
High Court judges said that he had knowledge of a plot which included plans to murder the current president and his vice-presidential running mate, Geraldo Alckmin, and to arrest and execute the presiding judge - the High Court judge who has been overseeing the former president's case.
The plot was stopped because it didn't receive the endorsement of the armed forces officials. His successor was sworn in without problem on the first day of 2023.
But a seven days after, on the eighth of January, many his followers attacked and damaged government buildings in the national capital, the capital city.
The security forces took action and around 1,500 people were detained.
The justices found that the demonstrators had been provoked by him whose scheme, they said, was for the national armed forces to intervene, bring back stability and reinstate his authority.
At the period, the legal team called the over 27-year sentence unreasonably severe".
He was also barred from running for public office until twenty-sixty - a decade minus two years after the conclusion of his imprisonment.
The one-time head of state called the trial a political persecution and said it was designed to prevent him participating in the 2026 presidential election.
