Bolsonaro has been arrested after authorities found he posed a definite escape threat while under home confinement.
The ex-president was sentenced of plotting a government overthrow in September and handed more than 27 years in prison, but he remained under house arrest pending legal challenges.
High Court Judge Justice Moraes said the decision to arrest the elderly politician was a safety action after fresh information came to light.
This encompassed trying to remove his ankle monitor and a summons to a public vigil that could enable a potential flight.
Legal Document Reveals Escape Risks
In a document approving the detention, Justice Moraes said information from the facility tracking the former president's confinement suggested the former leader's aim to disable the electronic ankle bracelet to ensure success in his getaway".
This, it said, would be "facilitated by the chaos caused by the gathering called by his child.
His child, Flávio Bolsonaro, who works as a congressional representative, called for a gathering of his supporters near his father's house to take place on the weekend.
The senator wrote on social media on last Friday: Will you battle for your country, or watch it all from your phone there on your couch? I invite you to fight with us."
He said the gathering would be so followers could seek divine intervention for his health and for the reestablishment of democratic governance in our land."
Diplomatic Refuge Fears
Part of Justice Moraes's decision was the potential of Bolsonaro's move to foreign missions near the residence, considering that the probes revealed a history of organizing to ask for protection through a embassy office", a announcement said.
The legal document emphasizes that the United States embassy in the national capital, Brazil's capital, is located around 13km from his dwelling.
International Reactions
Bolsonaro's legal woes have generated frustration from fellow populist conservative American leader Trump, prompting him to enact a half-rate duty on goods coming from Brazil.
He is being detained in a national police facility in Brazil's capital city and will experience a imprisonment assessment on the following day.
Latest Court Petitions
It was only on Friday that the ex-leader's attorneys asked the Supreme Court to allow him to complete his entire prison term under home confinement, with electronic monitoring.
They also petitioned that Bolsonaro be permitted to depart his residence for healthcare, saying he needed regular treatment for pulmonary infections and other illnesses.
Background on Conviction
Bolsonaro was determined responsible of orchestrating a plot aimed at maintaining his control after he failed to win the 2022 election to his ideological adversary, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
High Court judges said that he had knowledge of a scheme which involved plans to murder his opponent and his vice-presidential running mate, Alckmin, and to arrest and execute Alexandre de Moraes - the top judicial official who has been managing Bolsonaro's trial.
The conspiracy was thwarted because it failed to get the support of the military leaders. His successor was inaugurated without incident on January 1st, 2023.
But a week later, on the eighth of January, thousands of his backers attacked and damaged official structures in the capital, the capital city.
The police took action and around 1,500 people were detained.
The judges found that the protesters had been incited by the former president whose scheme, they said, was for the Brazilian military to take action, reestablish control and bring him back to power.
At the moment, his attorneys called the decades-long sentence extremely harsh.
He was also barred from seeking elected position until twenty-sixty - eight years after the completion of his term.
The ex-leader called the court case a "witch hunt and said it was aimed at blocking him competing in the 2026 presidential election.
