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Jair Bolsonaro has been taken into custody after authorities determined he posed a serious risk of fleeing while under home confinement.

The one-time leader was sentenced of plotting a military coup in September and handed more than over two decades in prison, but he continued under confinement pending court reviews.

Top Judicial Official Justice Moraes said the move to detain the 70-year-old politician was a precautionary step after "new facts" emerged.

This encompassed trying to remove his tracking device and a summons to a demonstration that could "allow for a possible escape.

Legal Document Reveals Escape Concerns

In a filing authorising the arrest, the judge said data from the centre monitoring Bolsonaro's house arrest suggested the ex-president's aim to disable the surveillance device to ensure success in his getaway".

This, it said, would be assisted by the chaos caused by the demonstration called by his child.

His offspring, Flávio Bolsonaro, who holds office as a senator, called for a meeting of his backers near the former president's residence to take place on Saturday evening.

The senator wrote on digital networks on Friday: Do you plan to struggle for your nation, or observe everything from your smartphone there on your couch? I call on you to struggle with us."

He said the gathering would be so supporters could "pray for his physical condition and for the restoration of democratic rule in our nation."

Diplomatic Refuge Fears

Part of the judge's ruling was the potential of his "relocation to foreign missions near the dwelling, considering that the inquiries revealed a record of organizing to request asylum through a embassy office", a statement said.

The judicial paperwork highlights that the US embassy in the capital, Brasilia, is located around 13km from the former president's residence.

Global Responses

The former president's legal troubles have drawn the ire of fellow right-wing populist American leader Donald Trump, leading him to enact a fifty percent tax on Brazilian product imports.

The former president is being held in a federal law enforcement building in the capital and will have a detention review on Sunday.

Latest Court Petitions

It was only on the previous day that the his legal team asked the High Court to allow him to complete his entire prison term under house arrest, with electronic monitoring.

They also requested that the former president be authorized to depart his residence for medical care, saying he needed ongoing care for respiratory ailments and other health problems.

Details of Guilty Verdict

The former president was convicted of heading a plot aimed at keeping him in power after he was defeated in the presidential race to his left-wing rival, Lula.

High Court judges said that he was aware of a scheme which involved plans to murder his opponent and his VP candidate, Alckmin, and to detain and kill the presiding judge - the High Court judge who has been presiding over his judicial proceedings.

The scheme was prevented because it failed to get the support of the army and air force commanders. The current president was inaugurated without incident on 1 January 2023.

But a following week, on 8 January, many his followers invaded and destroyed government buildings in the capital, Brazil's capital.

The security forces intervened and around approximately 1,500 persons were taken into custody.

The magistrates found that the rioters had been provoked by Bolsonaro whose strategy, they said, was for the national armed forces to take action, restore order and return him to office.

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

He was also banned from seeking elected position until the year 2060 - eight years after the end of his sentence.

The former president called the trial a "witch hunt and said it was designed to prevent him competing in the 2026 presidential election.