Bolsonaro detained after being considered a flight risk

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The former Brazilian leader has been taken into custody after authorities concluded he posed a definite escape threat while under domestic detention.

The one-time leader was convicted of planning a armed takeover in last fall and handed more than a 27-year term in prison, but he was staying under confinement pending legal challenges.

Top Judicial Official Justice Moraes said the decision to arrest the septuagenarian politician was a safety action after recent developments were revealed.

This encompassed trying to remove his ankle monitor and a invitation to a demonstration that could "allow for a chance to flee".

Judicial Records Show Escape Concerns

In a filing authorising the custody, Justice Moraes said data from the facility tracking the former president's confinement suggested the one-time head of state's plan to remove the tracking monitor to secure accomplishment in his flight.

This, it said, would be made easier by the chaos caused by the demonstration called by his offspring.

His son, his son Flávio, who serves as a senator, called for a meeting of his followers near his father's house to take place on Saturday evening.

Flávio Bolsonaro wrote on digital networks on Friday: "Are you going to fight for your homeland, or watch it all from your smartphone there on your settee? I call on you to struggle with us."

He said the demonstration would be so backers could seek divine intervention for his health and for the restoration of democratic rule in our nation."

Foreign Shelter Risks

Part of the magistrate's decision was the potential of his move to diplomatic missions near the residence, considering that the investigations revealed a record of planning to ask for protection through a diplomatic representation", a declaration said.

The legal document highlights that the US embassy in the capital, the capital city, is positioned around 13km from his dwelling.

International Reactions

The former president's legal troubles have generated frustration from fellow right-wing populist US President Trump, leading him to impose a fifty percent tax on goods coming from Brazil.

Bolsonaro is being held in a Federal Police station in the capital and will experience a detention review on the next day.

Recent Legal Requests

It was only on Friday that the his legal team asked the Supreme Court to authorize him to serve his whole jail sentence under home confinement, with electronic monitoring.

They also asked that the former president be authorized to exit his dwelling for medical treatment, saying he required ongoing care for respiratory ailments and other health problems.

Details of Guilty Verdict

He was convicted of leading a plot aimed at keeping him in power after he failed to win the national vote to his political opponent, Lula.

Top judicial officials said that he knew of a plot which included plans to kill the current president and his running partner, Geraldo Alckmin, and to arrest and execute Alexandre de Moraes - the top judicial official who has been presiding over the former president's case.

The plot was prevented because it couldn't obtain the support of the military leaders. Lula was sworn in without problem on January 1st, 2023.

But a following week, on 8 January, many Bolsonaro supporters stormed and vandalised official structures in the national capital, Brazil's capital.

The law enforcement intervened and around fifteen hundred individuals were arrested.

The magistrates found that the rioters had been encouraged by him whose strategy, they said, was for the national armed forces to take action, restore order and reinstate his authority.

At the moment, his attorneys called the decades-long sentence "absurdly excessive.

He was also banned from running for public office until twenty-sixty - a decade minus two years after the conclusion of his imprisonment.

The one-time head of state called the legal proceedings a political persecution and said it was aimed at blocking him running in the 2026 presidential election.

Yolanda Moreno
Yolanda Moreno

Elin är en erfaren ekonomijournalist som specialiserar sig på svenska företag och marknadstrender, med bakgrund i finansbranschen.