The former Brazilian leader has been taken into custody after authorities determined he posed a concrete flight risk while under house arrest.
The former head of state was convicted of orchestrating a government overthrow in September and given more than a 27-year term in prison, but he was staying under confinement pending appeals.
Top Judicial Official the presiding justice said the decision to arrest the septuagenarian politician was a preventative measure after "new facts" came to light.
This included trying to remove his tracking device and a call for a public vigil that could facilitate a possible escape.
Judicial Records Show Escape Risks
In a document approving the arrest, the judge said information from the facility tracking the former president's confinement suggested the one-time head of state's aim to disable the tracking monitor to ensure success in his escape.
This, it said, would be made easier by the chaos caused by the demonstration called by his son.
His offspring, Flávio Bolsonaro, who holds office as a legislator, called for a gathering of his backers near the former president's residence to take place on Saturday evening.
The senator wrote on digital networks on Friday: "Are you going to fight for your homeland, or observe everything from your mobile device there on your settee? I call on you to battle with us."
He said the demonstration would be so backers could offer prayers for his well-being and for the return of democracy in our nation."
Diplomatic Refuge Fears
Part of Justice Moraes's ruling was the chance of Bolsonaro's "relocation to embassies near the dwelling, considering that the probes revealed a background of organizing to ask for protection through a diplomatic representation", a declaration said.
The legal document highlights that the United States embassy in the capital, Brasilia, is positioned around 8 miles from his dwelling.
Global Responses
The former president's legal troubles have generated frustration from fellow populist conservative American leader Trump, leading him to enact a fifty percent tax on imports of Brazilian goods.
Bolsonaro is being kept in a national police facility in Brazil's capital city and will have a detention review on the next day.
Recent Judicial Appeals
It was only on last Friday that the his legal team asked the Top Court to permit him to fulfill his full incarceration period under home confinement, with electronic monitoring.
They also petitioned that the former president be authorized to depart his residence for healthcare, saying he needed frequent medical attention for pulmonary infections and other ailments.
Background on Conviction
The former president was convicted of leading a scheme aimed at retaining his authority after he lost the presidential race to his ideological adversary, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
High Court judges said that he was aware of a plan which included plans to murder his opponent and his VP candidate, his vice-presidential candidate, and to arrest and execute the presiding judge - the Supreme Court justice who has been managing his judicial proceedings.
The scheme was thwarted because it couldn't obtain the support of the armed forces officials. His successor was inaugurated without problem on 1 January 2023.
But a seven days after, on the eighth of January, thousands of his backers attacked and damaged official structures in the national capital, Brazil's capital.
The police intervened and around fifteen hundred individuals were detained.
The judges found that the protesters had been incited by Bolsonaro whose scheme, they said, was for the national armed forces to intervene, reestablish control and reinstate his authority.
At the period, Bolsonaro's lawyers called the over 27-year sentence "absurdly excessive.
He was also banned from campaigning for office until twenty-sixty - eight years after the end of his sentence.
The ex-leader called the legal proceedings a targeted investigation" and said it was aimed at blocking him participating in the 2026 national vote.
