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The former Brazilian leader has been taken into custody after authorities found he posed a concrete flight risk while under home confinement.

The ex-president was sentenced of planning a military coup in September and handed more than 27 years in jail, but he remained under house arrest pending appeals.

Top Judicial Official Justice Moraes said the move to detain the elderly politician was a safety action after "new facts" emerged.

This involved attempting to break his electronic bracelet and a call for a public vigil that could "allow for a chance to flee".

Legal Document Reveals Escape Concerns

In a paperwork permitting the arrest, Justice Moraes said intelligence from the unit overseeing the former president's confinement suggested the former leader's "intention to break the electronic ankle bracelet to ensure success in his escape.

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

His offspring, his son Flávio, who serves as a senator, called for a assembly of his followers near Bolsonaro's home to take place on Saturday evening.

Flávio Bolsonaro wrote on social media on Friday: Will you battle for your country, or see it all from your phone there on your couch? I call on you to battle with us."

He said the vigil would be so backers could "pray for his health and for the restoration of democratic rule in our country."

Embassy Asylum Concerns

Part of the magistrate's determination was the possibility of the former president's "relocation to embassies near the dwelling, considering that the inquiries revealed a record of arranging to ask for protection through a consular facility", a declaration said.

The legal document highlights that the US embassy in the national capital, the capital city, is positioned around 8 miles from Bolsonaro's home.

Global Responses

Bolsonaro's legal woes have drawn the ire of fellow populist conservative US President Donald Trump, leading him to enact a 50% tariff on imports of Brazilian goods.

Bolsonaro is being detained in a Federal Police station in Brazil's capital city and will have a imprisonment assessment on the following day.

Latest Court Petitions

It was only on the previous day that the ex-leader's attorneys asked the Top Court to allow him to serve his whole jail sentence under home confinement, with tracking devices.

They also asked that Bolsonaro be allowed to leave his home for medical treatment, saying he demanded regular treatment for lung conditions and other health problems.

Details of Guilty Verdict

The former president was found guilty of leading a plot aimed at retaining his authority after he failed to win the 2022 election to his political opponent, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Supreme Court justices said that he knew of a plot which involved plans to kill his opponent and his vice-presidential running mate, Alckmin, and to detain and kill Justice Moraes - the High Court judge who has been presiding over Bolsonaro's trial.

The conspiracy was stopped because it couldn't obtain the backing of the army and air force commanders. His successor was sworn in without incident on the first day of 2023.

But a following week, on January 8th, 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 arrested.

The judges found that the demonstrators had been provoked by the former president whose plan, they said, was for the country's army to take action, restore order and return him to office.

At the time, the legal team called the over 27-year sentence unreasonably severe".

He was also barred from running for public office until twenty-sixty - eight years later after the end of his sentence.

The ex-leader called the legal proceedings a political persecution and said it was designed to prevent him running in the 2026 presidential election.