Jair Bolsonaro has been arrested after authorities found he posed a serious risk of fleeing while under house arrest.
The one-time leader was sentenced of plotting a government overthrow in the ninth month and given more than 27 years in jail, but he remained under confinement pending court reviews.
Top Judicial Official the presiding justice said the move to detain the 70-year-old politician was a preventative measure after fresh information came to light.
This involved seeking to disable his tracking device and a invitation to a public vigil that could enable a possible escape.
Court Filing Details Escape Risks
In a filing authorising the arrest, Justice Moraes said intelligence from the unit overseeing the former president's confinement suggested the ex-president's plan to remove the tracking monitor to guarantee victory in his escape.
This, it said, would be assisted by the disorder caused by the gathering called by his child.
His child, his son Flávio, who serves as a senator, called for a meeting of his supporters near his father's house to take place on Saturday evening.
His son wrote on online platforms on Friday: "Are you going to fight for your country, or watch it all from your mobile device there on your sofa? I call on you to fight with us."
He said the gathering would be so supporters could "pray for his physical condition and for the return of democracy in our country."
Diplomatic Refuge Fears
Part of Justice Moraes's ruling was the possibility of Bolsonaro's move to foreign missions near the dwelling, considering that the inquiries revealed a background of organizing to ask for protection through a consular facility", a statement said.
The court filing emphasizes that the American diplomatic mission in the capital, Brasilia, is situated around 8 miles from the former president's residence.
Global Responses
His judicial problems have drawn the ire of fellow right-wing populist United States President President Trump, prompting him to impose a 50% tariff on Brazilian product imports.
He is being detained in a national police facility in Brasilia and will experience a imprisonment assessment on the following day.
Recent Judicial Appeals
It was only on the previous day that the former president's lawyers asked the Top Court to allow him to serve his whole jail sentence under domestic detention, with digital surveillance.
They also petitioned that the former president be allowed to leave his home for healthcare, saying he required frequent medical attention for pulmonary infections and other illnesses.
Details of Guilty Verdict
Bolsonaro was convicted of orchestrating a conspiracy aimed at maintaining his control after he failed to win the 2022 election to his ideological adversary, Lula.
Top judicial officials said that he knew of a plot which encompassed plans to kill Lula and his VP candidate, Alckmin, and to arrest and execute the presiding judge - the Supreme Court justice who has been managing his judicial proceedings.
The plot was prevented because it didn't receive the support of the armed forces officials. The current president was sworn in without issue on 1 January 2023.
But a seven days after, on 8 January, numerous his backers stormed and vandalised official structures in the national capital, the capital city.
The police took action and around 1,500 people were arrested.
The magistrates found that the demonstrators had been encouraged by him whose strategy, they said, was for the country's army to step in, reestablish control and reinstate his authority.
At the period, Bolsonaro's lawyers called the decades-long sentence "absurdly excessive.
He was also barred from running for public office until twenty-sixty - a decade minus two years after the conclusion of his imprisonment.
The former president called the trial a "witch hunt and said it was designed to prevent him running in the next presidential race.