Jair Bolsonaro has been taken into custody after authorities determined he posed a definite escape threat while under domestic detention.
The ex-president was sentenced of planning a government overthrow in last fall and given more than over two decades in jail, but he remained under confinement pending appeals.
Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes said the action to imprison the septuagenarian politician was a safety action after "new facts" emerged.
This involved trying to remove his ankle monitor and a invitation to a demonstration that could "allow for a chance to flee".
Legal Document Reveals Escape Concerns
In a filing authorising the detention, the magistrate said data from the facility tracking Bolsonaro's house arrest suggested the one-time head of state's plan to remove the electronic ankle bracelet to ensure success in his getaway".
This, it said, would be "facilitated by the disorder caused by the demonstration called by his child.
His offspring, Flávio Bolsonaro, who holds office as a congressional representative, called for a assembly of his backers near Bolsonaro's home to take place on the weekend.
Flávio Bolsonaro wrote on online platforms on the previous day: Will you battle for your nation, or watch it all from your smartphone there on your sofa? I urge you to battle with us."
He said the gathering would be so backers could seek divine intervention for his health and for the restoration of democratic rule in our country."
Diplomatic Refuge Fears
Part of Justice Moraes's decision was the potential of the former president's "relocation to diplomatic missions near the home, considering that the inquiries revealed a background of planning to seek refuge through a embassy office", a statement said.
The legal document emphasizes that the United States embassy in the national capital, the capital city, is situated around 8 miles from the former president's residence.
International Reactions
His judicial problems have generated frustration from fellow populist conservative US President Donald Trump, prompting him to enact a 50% tariff on imports of Brazilian goods.
He is being kept in a Federal Police station in Brasilia and will undergo a custody hearing on Sunday.
Recent Judicial Appeals
It was only on last Friday that the his legal team asked the Supreme Court to allow him to serve his whole jail sentence under house arrest, with electronic monitoring.
They also asked that he be permitted to exit his dwelling for medical treatment, saying he needed regular treatment for pulmonary infections and other ailments.
Context of Sentencing
He was convicted of orchestrating a scheme aimed at keeping him in power after he lost the 2022 election to his ideological adversary, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
High Court judges said that he was aware of a scheme which encompassed plans to assassinate Lula and his VP candidate, Geraldo Alckmin, and to detain and kill Justice Moraes - the Supreme Court justice who has been managing the former president's case.
The scheme was thwarted because it didn't receive the backing of the army and air force commanders. Lula was sworn in without incident on January 1st, 2023.
But a seven days after, on 8 January, many his backers stormed and vandalised official structures in the national capital, Brasília.
The police stepped in and around approximately 1,500 persons were detained.
The magistrates found that the protesters had been provoked by Bolsonaro whose strategy, they said, was for the national armed forces to take action, restore order and bring him back to power.
At the time, his attorneys called the over 27-year sentence unreasonably severe".
He was also barred from campaigning for office until twenty-sixty - a decade minus two years after the completion of his term.
The former president called the legal proceedings a political persecution and said it was designed to prevent him participating in the next presidential race.
