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Bolsonaro has been detained after authorities found he posed a definite escape threat while under domestic detention.

The ex-president was convicted of plotting a armed takeover in the ninth month and sentenced more than a 27-year term in prison, but he remained under confinement pending legal challenges.

Top Judicial Official Justice Moraes said the move to detain the 70-year-old politician was a preventative measure after "new facts" came to light.

This involved seeking to disable his tracking device and a call for a public vigil that could "allow for a chance to flee".

Judicial Records Show Escape Risks

In a document approving the custody, Justice Moraes said information from the unit overseeing the former president's confinement suggested the one-time head of state's plan to remove the surveillance device to secure accomplishment in his escape.

This, it said, would be "facilitated by the confusion caused by the gathering called by his son.

His child, his son Flávio, who serves as a legislator, called for a assembly of his backers near the former president's residence to take place on Saturday evening.

His son wrote on social media on last Friday: Do you plan to struggle for your country, or observe everything from your phone there on your couch? I invite you to battle with us."

He said the gathering would be so backers could "pray for his physical condition and for the return of democracy in our country."

Foreign Shelter Risks

Part of Justice Moraes's determination was the potential of his transfer to diplomatic missions near the home, considering that the probes revealed a record of arranging to seek refuge through a consular facility", a statement said.

The legal document emphasizes that the American diplomatic mission in the federal district, the capital city, is located around 13km from his dwelling.

Global Responses

The former president's legal troubles have drawn the ire of fellow right-wing populist US President President Trump, causing him to impose a fifty percent tax on Brazilian product imports.

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

Recent Legal Requests

It was only on the previous day that the his legal team asked the Top Court to allow him to serve his whole jail sentence under home confinement, with tracking devices.

They also petitioned that Bolsonaro be allowed to leave his home for medical care, saying he required frequent medical attention for respiratory ailments and other ailments.

Context of Sentencing

The former president was determined responsible of orchestrating a plot aimed at retaining his authority after he lost the 2022 election to his ideological adversary, Lula.

Supreme Court justices said that he had knowledge of a scheme which included plans to assassinate the current president and his VP candidate, his vice-presidential candidate, and to detain and kill the presiding judge - the High Court judge who has been presiding over the former president's case.

The scheme was thwarted because it failed to get the endorsement of the military leaders. The current president was inaugurated without issue on the first day of 2023.

But a following week, on 8 January, thousands of his followers attacked and damaged official structures in the national capital, the capital city.

The security forces stepped in and around 1,500 people were detained.

The justices found that the demonstrators had been provoked by the former president whose strategy, they said, was for the country's army to step in, bring back stability and return him to office.

At the moment, his attorneys called the 27 years and three months sentence unreasonably severe".

He was also prohibited from seeking elected position until twenty-sixty - eight years after the end of his sentence.

The ex-leader called the court case a targeted investigation" and said it was aimed at blocking him running in the 2026 presidential election.