Bolsonaro has been arrested after authorities found he posed a serious risk of fleeing while under home confinement.
The former head of state was found guilty of orchestrating a armed takeover in the ninth month and given more than over two decades in jail, but he was staying under home detention pending appeals.
High Court Judge Justice Moraes said the decision to arrest the elderly politician was a preventative measure after recent developments emerged.
This encompassed seeking to disable his ankle monitor and a invitation to a supporters' gathering that could facilitate a potential flight.
Legal Document Reveals Flight Fears
In a filing authorising the arrest, the judge said intelligence from the centre monitoring 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 made easier by the confusion caused by the gathering called by his son.
His child, his son Flávio, who holds office as a senator, called for a gathering of his supporters near the former president's residence to take place on the weekend.
His son wrote on online platforms on Friday: Do you plan to struggle for your country, or see it all from your smartphone there on your settee? I call on you to battle with us."
He said the gathering would be so supporters could offer prayers for his physical condition and for the restoration of democratic rule in our country."
Embassy Asylum Concerns
Part of Justice Moraes's ruling was the possibility of the former president's move to foreign missions near the residence, considering that the inquiries revealed a history of planning to seek refuge through a embassy office", a declaration said.
The judicial paperwork emphasizes that the US embassy in the federal district, Brazil's capital, is situated around 13km from his dwelling.
Global Responses
His judicial problems have drawn the ire of fellow right-wing populist American leader Trump, prompting him to impose a 50% tariff on Brazilian product imports.
He is being held in a federal law enforcement building in Brasilia and will undergo a detention review on Sunday.
Recent Legal Requests
It was only on Friday that the former president's lawyers asked the Supreme Court to allow him to fulfill his full incarceration period under domestic detention, with electronic monitoring.
They also requested that Bolsonaro be authorized to exit his dwelling for medical treatment, saying he required regular treatment for lung conditions and other illnesses.
Context of Sentencing
Bolsonaro was convicted of leading a plot aimed at keeping him in power after he was defeated in the presidential race to his ideological adversary, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Supreme Court justices said that he had knowledge of a plot which involved plans to murder his opponent and his running partner, his vice-presidential candidate, and to imprison and murder Alexandre de Moraes - the High Court judge who has been managing his judicial proceedings.
The conspiracy was stopped because it didn't receive the support of the army and air force commanders. Lula was inaugurated without issue on the first day of 2023.
But a seven days after, on January 8th, thousands of his followers attacked and damaged public facilities in the federal district, the capital city.
The police intervened and around fifteen hundred individuals were detained.
The magistrates found that the protesters had been encouraged by the former president whose strategy, they said, was for the Brazilian military to take action, bring back stability and return him to office.
At the moment, Bolsonaro's lawyers called the decades-long sentence extremely harsh.
He was also banned from campaigning for office until the year 2060 - eight years later after the end of his sentence.
The ex-leader called the legal proceedings a "witch hunt and said it was aimed at blocking him participating in the next presidential race.
