Bolsonaro has been detained after authorities found he posed a definite escape threat while under home confinement.
The one-time leader was sentenced of orchestrating a government overthrow in the ninth month and handed more than 27 years in incarceration, but he continued under house arrest pending legal challenges.
High Court Judge the presiding justice said the move to detain the 70-year-old politician was a preventative measure after "new facts" came to light.
This included seeking to disable his tracking device and a invitation to a demonstration that could enable a potential flight.
Court Filing Details Flight Fears
In a filing authorising the detention, the magistrate said information from the facility tracking the former president's confinement suggested the ex-president's "intention to break 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 offspring.
His son, Flávio Bolsonaro, who works as a senator, called for a gathering of his supporters near his father's house to take place on Saturday night.
His son wrote on online platforms on last Friday: Do you plan to struggle for your country, or observe everything from your phone there on your couch? I urge you to battle with us."
He said the vigil would be so supporters could "pray for his physical condition and for the restoration of democratic rule in our land."
Embassy Asylum Concerns
Part of the magistrate's decision was the potential of his transfer to embassies near the residence, considering that the investigations revealed a history of planning to ask for protection through a embassy office", a statement said.
The judicial paperwork highlights that the US embassy in the federal district, the capital city, is positioned around 8 miles from the former president's residence.
Global Responses
The former president's legal troubles have drawn the ire of fellow conservative nationalist US President Trump, leading him to implement a 50% tariff on goods coming from Brazil.
The former president is being detained in a national police facility in the capital and will experience a detention review on the next day.
Latest Court Petitions
It was only on the previous day that the ex-leader's attorneys asked the Top Court to authorize him to serve his whole jail sentence under home confinement, with electronic monitoring.
They also asked that he be permitted to leave his home for healthcare, saying he needed ongoing care for pulmonary infections and other ailments.
Context of Sentencing
Bolsonaro was convicted of heading a conspiracy aimed at maintaining his control after he was defeated in the presidential race to his political opponent, Lula.
Supreme Court justices said that he had knowledge of a plan which encompassed plans to assassinate the current president and his vice-presidential running mate, Alckmin, and to imprison and murder Alexandre de Moraes - the Supreme Court justice who has been presiding over his judicial proceedings.
The scheme was thwarted because it couldn't obtain the support of the army and air force commanders. Lula was took office without problem on the first day of 2023.
But a week later, on January 8th, many Bolsonaro supporters stormed and vandalised official structures in the national capital, the capital city.
The security forces stepped in and around fifteen hundred individuals were detained.
The magistrates found that the rioters had been encouraged by the former president whose strategy, they said, was for the national armed forces to take action, bring back stability and reinstate his authority.
At the period, the legal team called the over 27-year sentence "absurdly excessive.
He was also banned from campaigning for office until 2060 - a decade minus two years after the conclusion of his imprisonment.
The former president called the trial a "witch hunt and said it was aimed at blocking him running in the 2026 national vote.
