Jair Bolsonaro has been detained after authorities concluded he posed a concrete flight risk while under home confinement.
The one-time leader was sentenced of orchestrating a military coup in September and sentenced more than over two decades in jail, but he remained under house arrest pending court reviews.
Top Judicial Official the presiding justice said the move to detain the elderly politician was a precautionary step after "new facts" emerged.
This encompassed trying to remove his electronic bracelet and a call for a supporters' gathering that could facilitate a potential flight.
Court Filing Details Escape Risks
In a document approving the arrest, the judge said intelligence from the facility tracking his home detention suggested the ex-president's plan to remove the electronic ankle bracelet to guarantee victory in his getaway".
This, it said, would be made easier by the confusion caused by the gathering called by his child.
His offspring, Flávio, who holds office as a congressional representative, called for a assembly of his supporters near Bolsonaro's home to take place on Saturday evening.
The senator wrote on digital networks on Friday: Do you plan to struggle for your homeland, or watch it all from your phone there on your settee? I call on you to fight with us."
He said the demonstration would be so supporters could seek divine intervention for his physical condition and for the reestablishment of democratic governance in our country."
Diplomatic Refuge Fears
Part of Justice Moraes's decision was the possibility of his move to foreign missions near the dwelling, considering that the investigations revealed a history of planning to seek refuge through a diplomatic representation", a announcement said.
The legal document emphasizes that the American diplomatic mission in the national capital, Brasilia, is positioned around 8 miles from his dwelling.
International Reactions
The former president's legal troubles have provoked anger from fellow right-wing populist US President President Trump, prompting him to enact a 50% tariff on goods coming from Brazil.
Bolsonaro is being detained in a Federal Police station in Brazil's capital city and will undergo a imprisonment assessment on Sunday.
Latest Court Petitions
It was only on last Friday that the his legal team asked the Supreme Court to permit him to serve his whole jail sentence under house arrest, with electronic monitoring.
They also asked that he be allowed to exit his dwelling for medical treatment, saying he needed regular treatment for respiratory ailments and other ailments.
Details of Guilty Verdict
The former president was determined responsible of heading a conspiracy aimed at keeping him in power after he was defeated in the 2022 election to his political opponent, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Supreme Court justices said that he was aware of a plan which included plans to assassinate the current president and his VP candidate, Alckmin, and to detain and kill Justice Moraes - the Supreme Court justice who has been presiding over the former president's case.
The conspiracy was thwarted because it failed to get the backing of the army and air force commanders. Lula was sworn in without problem on the first day of 2023.
But a week later, on 8 January, thousands of Bolsonaro supporters stormed and vandalised official structures in the federal district, Brazil's capital.
The police intervened and around fifteen hundred individuals were detained.
The judges found that the rioters had been provoked by the former president whose scheme, they said, was for the national armed forces to intervene, bring back stability and return him to office.
At the period, his attorneys called the decades-long sentence extremely harsh.
He was also barred from running for public office until 2060 - a decade minus two years after the conclusion of his imprisonment.
The one-time head of state called the trial a "witch hunt and said it was designed to prevent him competing in the next presidential race.
