Jair Bolsonaro has been taken into custody after authorities concluded he posed a serious risk of fleeing while under home confinement.
The ex-president was convicted of orchestrating a armed takeover in the ninth month and handed more than over two decades in jail, but he remained under confinement pending legal challenges.
Top Judicial Official Justice Moraes said the action to imprison the elderly politician was a safety action after recent developments were revealed.
This encompassed seeking to disable his electronic bracelet and a summons to a public vigil that could "allow for a chance to flee".
Legal Document Reveals Flight Fears
In a document approving the arrest, the magistrate said intelligence from the unit overseeing Bolsonaro's house arrest suggested the former leader's "intention to break the surveillance device to secure accomplishment in his flight.
This, it said, would be "facilitated by the confusion caused by the gathering called by his offspring.
His child, his son Flávio, who holds office as a congressional representative, called for a gathering of his backers near the former president's residence to take place on the weekend.
Flávio Bolsonaro wrote on online platforms on Friday: "Are you going to fight for your country, or watch it all from your phone there on your couch? I urge you to struggle with us."
He said the vigil would be so supporters could seek divine intervention for his physical condition and for the reestablishment of democratic governance in our land."
Embassy Asylum Concerns
Part of the judge's determination was the potential of his "relocation to diplomatic missions near the home, considering that the inquiries revealed a record of planning to ask for protection through a diplomatic representation", a statement said.
The court filing emphasizes that the United States embassy in the capital, Brasilia, is positioned around approximately 13 kilometers from the former president's residence.
Global Responses
The former president's legal troubles have provoked anger from fellow conservative nationalist United States President Donald Trump, leading him to enact a half-rate duty on goods coming from Brazil.
Bolsonaro is being kept in a federal law enforcement building in Brasilia and will experience a detention review on the following day.
Recent Judicial Appeals
It was only on last Friday that the former president's lawyers asked the High Court to permit him to serve his whole jail sentence under home confinement, with digital surveillance.
They also petitioned that the former president be permitted to depart his residence for healthcare, saying he demanded regular treatment for lung conditions and other health problems.
Details of Guilty Verdict
The former president was found guilty of heading a plot aimed at maintaining his control after he was defeated in the national vote to his political opponent, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
High Court judges said that he was aware of a plot which included plans to kill the current president and his VP candidate, his vice-presidential candidate, and to detain and kill Alexandre de Moraes - the High Court judge who has been presiding over his judicial proceedings.
The scheme was thwarted because it failed to get the endorsement of the military leaders. Lula was inaugurated without issue on the first day of 2023.
But a week later, on the eighth of January, many his backers invaded and destroyed government buildings in the federal district, Brazil's capital.
The law enforcement intervened and around 1,500 people were arrested.
The magistrates found that the demonstrators had been incited by the former president whose strategy, they said, was for the Brazilian military to step in, bring back stability and reinstate his authority.
At the period, Bolsonaro's lawyers called the decades-long sentence "absurdly excessive.
He was also prohibited from campaigning for office until 2060 - eight years later after the conclusion of his imprisonment.
The ex-leader called the court case a "witch hunt and said it was designed to prevent him running in the 2026 presidential election.
