🔗 Share this article Bolsonaro taken into custody after being deemed a flight risk Jair Bolsonaro has been taken into custody after authorities found he posed a serious risk of fleeing while under domestic detention. The ex-president was sentenced of planning a armed takeover in September and given more than a 27-year term in prison, but he was staying under house arrest pending legal challenges. High Court Judge Justice Moraes said the action to imprison the elderly politician was a precautionary step after "new facts" were revealed. This involved attempting to break his tracking device and a summons to a demonstration that could enable a possible escape. Court Filing Details Escape Concerns In a filing authorising the custody, Justice Moraes said data from the facility tracking the former president's confinement suggested the former leader's plan to remove the surveillance device to guarantee victory in his flight. This, it said, would be made easier by the confusion caused by the demonstration called by his child. His child, Flávio, who holds office as a senator, called for a assembly of his backers near his father's house to take place on Saturday evening. His son wrote on social media on Friday: Do you plan to struggle for your nation, or see it all from your smartphone there on your sofa? I invite you to struggle with us." He said the demonstration would be so supporters could "pray for his well-being and for the reestablishment of democratic governance in our country." Foreign Shelter Risks Part of Justice Moraes's decision was the chance of the former president's "relocation to foreign missions near the home, considering that the inquiries revealed a history of planning to ask for protection through a diplomatic representation", a statement said. The judicial paperwork underscores that the United States embassy in the capital, the capital city, is positioned around 13km from Bolsonaro's home. Global Responses His judicial problems have generated frustration from fellow right-wing populist US President Donald Trump, prompting him to impose a 50% tariff on imports of Brazilian goods. The former president is being kept in a federal law enforcement building in the capital and will have a imprisonment assessment on the next day. Latest Court Petitions It was only on the previous day that the ex-leader's attorneys asked the Top Court to allow him to fulfill his full incarceration period under house arrest, with electronic monitoring. They also asked that the former president be authorized to leave his home for medical care, saying he demanded ongoing care for respiratory ailments and other health problems. Background on Conviction The former president was determined responsible of heading a conspiracy aimed at retaining his authority after he failed to win the 2022 election to his political opponent, Lula. Supreme Court justices said that he knew of a plan which involved plans to kill his opponent and his running partner, Alckmin, and to imprison and murder Justice Moraes - the High Court judge who has been managing Bolsonaro's trial. The scheme was prevented because it failed to get the backing of the armed forces officials. The current president was inaugurated without incident on the first day of 2023. But a following week, on the eighth of January, thousands of his backers attacked and damaged official structures in the federal district, Brasília. The security forces intervened and around 1,500 people were arrested. The justices found that the demonstrators had been provoked by Bolsonaro whose strategy, they said, was for the national armed forces to intervene, reestablish control and bring him back to power. At the time, Bolsonaro's lawyers called the decades-long sentence "absurdly excessive. He was also prohibited from campaigning for office until the year 2060 - 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 aimed at blocking him running in the 2026 national vote.