Bolsonaro taken into custody after being considered a flight risk

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Bolsonaro has been arrested after authorities concluded he posed a concrete flight risk while under home confinement.

The ex-president was sentenced of orchestrating a armed takeover in the ninth month and sentenced more than a 27-year term in jail, but he remained under confinement pending court reviews.

Top Judicial Official the presiding justice said the move to detain the septuagenarian politician was a precautionary step after recent developments were revealed.

This involved trying to remove his electronic bracelet and a invitation to a public vigil that could facilitate a possible escape.

Judicial Records Show Flight Fears

In a document approving the custody, the judge said intelligence from the facility tracking the former president's confinement suggested the ex-president's aim to disable the tracking monitor to secure accomplishment in his flight.

This, it said, would be assisted by the disorder caused by the protest called by his child.

His son, Flávio, who serves as a senator, called for a gathering of his supporters near the former president's residence to take place on Saturday night.

The senator wrote on social media on Friday: "Are you going to fight for your country, or see it all from your phone there on your settee? I urge you to battle with us."

He said the gathering would be so supporters could "pray for his physical condition and for the reestablishment of democratic governance in our land."

Diplomatic Refuge Fears

Part of the judge's determination was the possibility of the former president's "relocation to foreign missions near the home, considering that the investigations revealed a history of organizing to seek refuge through a consular facility", a announcement said.

The legal document underscores that the United States embassy in the federal district, Brasilia, is situated around 13km from Bolsonaro's home.

International Reactions

The former president's legal troubles have drawn the ire of fellow right-wing populist United States President President Trump, leading him to implement a fifty percent tax on imports of Brazilian goods.

The former president is being kept in a national police facility in Brasilia and will have a detention review on Sunday.

Latest Court Petitions

It was only on the previous day that the former president's lawyers asked the High Court to permit him to fulfill his full incarceration period under house arrest, with tracking devices.

They also requested that the former president be permitted to exit his dwelling for medical care, saying he required regular treatment for respiratory ailments and other illnesses.

Details of Guilty Verdict

He was determined responsible of heading a conspiracy aimed at keeping him in power after he was defeated in the presidential race to his left-wing rival, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

High Court judges said that he had knowledge of a plot which involved plans to murder the current president and his vice-presidential running mate, his vice-presidential candidate, and to imprison and murder the presiding judge - the High Court judge who has been presiding over his judicial proceedings.

The scheme was thwarted because it didn't receive the support of the military leaders. Lula was inaugurated without incident on the first day of 2023.

But a seven days after, on 8 January, numerous his followers stormed and vandalised public facilities in the federal district, the capital city.

The security forces took action and around 1,500 people were arrested.

The judges found that the demonstrators had been provoked by him whose strategy, they said, was for the national armed forces to take action, reestablish control and reinstate his authority.

At the period, Bolsonaro's lawyers called the 27 years and three months sentence "absurdly excessive.

He was also barred from seeking elected position until 2060 - eight years after the end of his sentence.

The one-time head of state called the legal proceedings a political persecution and said it was designed to prevent him running in the 2026 national vote.

Sharon Thomas
Sharon Thomas

A digital artist and storyteller passionate about blending fantasy with reality in her works.