🔗 Share this article

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

The former head of state was found guilty of plotting a military coup in last fall and given more than over two decades in jail, but he was staying under home detention pending legal challenges.

Top Judicial Official Alexandre de Moraes said the action to imprison the septuagenarian politician was a safety action after fresh information emerged.

This involved attempting to break his electronic bracelet and a call for a demonstration that could "allow for a potential flight.

Judicial Records Show Escape Risks

In a filing authorising the detention, the magistrate said data from the centre monitoring his home detention suggested the one-time head of state's "intention to break the surveillance device to secure accomplishment in his flight.

This, it said, would be "facilitated by the disorder caused by the demonstration called by his offspring.

His offspring, Flávio Bolsonaro, who holds office as a senator, called for a meeting of his backers near Bolsonaro's home to take place on the weekend.

His son wrote on digital networks on the previous day: "Are you going to fight for your homeland, or observe everything from your mobile device there on your couch? I urge you to struggle with us."

He said the vigil would be so followers could "pray for his health and for the return of democracy in our country."

Diplomatic Refuge Fears

Part of Justice Moraes's decision was the possibility of Bolsonaro's "relocation to embassies near the home, considering that the inquiries revealed a history of organizing to request asylum through a consular facility", a announcement said.

The legal document emphasizes that the US embassy in the capital, Brazil's capital, is situated around 13km from his dwelling.

Global Responses

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

Bolsonaro is being held in a national police facility in Brazil's capital city and will experience a custody hearing on the next day.

Recent Judicial Appeals

It was only on last Friday that the former president's lawyers asked the High Court to allow him to serve his whole jail sentence under domestic detention, with tracking devices.

They also petitioned that the former president be allowed to exit his dwelling for medical care, saying he required frequent medical attention for lung conditions and other health problems.

Background on Conviction

He was determined responsible of leading a plot aimed at keeping him in power after he failed to win the 2022 election to his ideological adversary, President Lula.

Supreme Court justices said that he knew of a scheme which involved plans to kill his opponent and his vice-presidential running mate, Alckmin, and to detain and kill the presiding judge - the Supreme Court justice who has been presiding over Bolsonaro's trial.

The plot was thwarted because it didn't receive the backing of the armed forces officials. Lula was took office without incident on 1 January 2023.

But a week later, on 8 January, numerous Bolsonaro supporters stormed and vandalised government buildings in the federal district, Brazil's capital.

The law enforcement stepped in and around fifteen hundred individuals were taken into custody.

The magistrates found that the protesters had been provoked by the former president whose scheme, they said, was for the Brazilian military to intervene, reestablish control and bring him back to power.

At the moment, his attorneys called the over 27-year sentence extremely harsh.

He was also barred from campaigning for office until 2060 - a decade minus two years after the end of his sentence.

The ex-leader called the legal proceedings a political persecution and said it was aimed at blocking him participating in the 2026 presidential election.