Jair Bolsonaro has been arrested after authorities concluded he posed a concrete flight risk while under house arrest.
The ex-president was sentenced of plotting a government overthrow in September and sentenced more than a 27-year term in incarceration, but he was staying under confinement pending appeals.
Top Judicial Official Alexandre de Moraes said the decision to arrest the septuagenarian politician was a precautionary step after "new facts" emerged.
This involved seeking to disable his electronic bracelet and a invitation to a supporters' gathering that could "allow for a possible escape.
Judicial Records Show Escape Concerns
In a filing authorising the detention, the judge said information from the unit overseeing the former president's confinement suggested the ex-president's "intention to break the tracking monitor to guarantee victory in his flight.
This, it said, would be made easier by the disorder caused by the protest called by his son.
His child, his son Flávio, who works as a congressional representative, called for a gathering of his supporters near Bolsonaro's home to take place on Saturday evening.
Flávio Bolsonaro wrote on online platforms on last Friday: Will you battle for your country, or observe everything from your phone there on your sofa? I invite you to battle with us."
He said the gathering would be so backers could "pray for his health and for the restoration of democratic rule in our nation."
Embassy Asylum Concerns
Part of Justice Moraes's determination was the potential of his transfer to diplomatic missions near the dwelling, considering that the probes revealed a record of arranging to ask for protection through a embassy office", a announcement said.
The judicial paperwork highlights that the American diplomatic mission in the national capital, Brasilia, is located around 13km from the former president's residence.
International Reactions
His judicial problems have provoked anger from fellow right-wing populist United States President President Trump, causing him to impose a half-rate duty on goods coming from Brazil.
The former president is being kept in a Federal Police station in the capital and will experience a imprisonment assessment on the following day.
Recent Judicial Appeals
It was only on last Friday that the former president's lawyers asked the Supreme Court to authorize him to serve his whole jail sentence under domestic detention, with electronic monitoring.
They also requested that the former president be permitted to depart his residence for healthcare, saying he needed ongoing care for pulmonary infections and other illnesses.
Background on Conviction
Bolsonaro was convicted of heading a plot aimed at keeping him in power after he lost the presidential race to his ideological adversary, Lula.
Supreme Court justices said that he knew of a scheme which included plans to murder Lula and his vice-presidential running mate, his vice-presidential candidate, and to imprison and murder Justice Moraes - the Supreme Court justice who has been presiding over Bolsonaro's trial.
The scheme was thwarted because it couldn't obtain the support of the army and air force commanders. The current president was took office without incident on the first day of 2023.
But a following week, on the eighth of January, thousands of Bolsonaro supporters stormed and vandalised official structures in the national capital, the capital city.
The law enforcement intervened and around fifteen hundred individuals were detained.
The justices found that the demonstrators had been provoked by him whose scheme, they said, was for the country's army to step in, restore order and reinstate his authority.
At the period, the legal team called the over 27-year sentence extremely harsh.
He was also barred from seeking elected position until the year 2060 - a decade minus two years after the completion of his term.
The former president called the legal proceedings a "witch hunt and said it was intended to stop him competing in the 2026 national vote.
