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Bolsonaro has been detained after authorities found he posed a serious risk of fleeing while under domestic detention.

The one-time leader was sentenced of planning a military coup in the ninth month and handed more than over two decades in incarceration, but he remained under confinement pending legal challenges.

Brazilian Supreme Court Justice the presiding justice said the action to imprison the elderly politician was a safety action after recent developments came to light.

This included seeking to disable his electronic bracelet and a call for a supporters' gathering that could facilitate a possible escape.

Judicial Records Show Escape Concerns

In a paperwork permitting the custody, the magistrate said intelligence from the centre monitoring the former president's confinement suggested the one-time head of state's "intention to break the electronic ankle bracelet to guarantee victory in his flight.

This, it said, would be made easier by the confusion caused by the protest called by his child.

His son, Flávio Bolsonaro, who serves as a legislator, called for a gathering of his supporters near the former president's residence to take place on Saturday evening.

His son wrote on digital networks on Friday: Will you battle for your homeland, or observe everything from your phone there on your sofa? I urge you to battle with us."

He said the vigil 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 magistrate's ruling was the chance of the former president's transfer to embassies near the home, considering that the investigations revealed a history of arranging to seek refuge through a embassy office", a statement said.

The court filing highlights that the United States embassy in the capital, Brasilia, is located around 13km from the former president's residence.

Global Responses

Bolsonaro's legal woes have generated frustration from fellow populist conservative US President Trump, prompting him to impose a fifty percent tax on imports of Brazilian goods.

He is being held in a Federal Police station in Brazil's capital city and will undergo a detention review on Sunday.

Recent Judicial Appeals

It was only on last Friday that the former president's lawyers asked the Top Court to authorize him to serve his whole jail sentence under domestic detention, with electronic monitoring.

They also requested that Bolsonaro be permitted to exit his dwelling for medical treatment, saying he needed regular treatment for respiratory ailments and other health problems.

Context of Sentencing

He was convicted of heading a scheme aimed at retaining his authority after he lost the national vote to his ideological adversary, President Lula.

Top judicial officials said that he knew of a plot which involved plans to assassinate the current president and his VP candidate, Geraldo Alckmin, and to arrest and execute the presiding judge - the top judicial official who has been presiding over his judicial proceedings.

The conspiracy was thwarted because it couldn't obtain the support of the military leaders. His successor was sworn in without issue on the first day of 2023.

But a following week, on the eighth of January, many Bolsonaro supporters stormed and vandalised government buildings in the federal district, the capital city.

The law enforcement stepped in and around approximately 1,500 persons were taken into custody.

The justices found that the demonstrators had been incited by the former president whose scheme, they said, was for the country's army to intervene, bring back stability and reinstate his authority.

At the time, the legal team called the decades-long sentence unreasonably severe".

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

The former president called the court case a political persecution and said it was designed to prevent him competing in the 2026 presidential election.