Bolsonaro has been detained after authorities found he posed a serious risk of fleeing while under house arrest.
The one-time leader was sentenced of plotting a government overthrow in September and sentenced more than 27 years in incarceration, but he remained under home detention pending legal challenges.
Top Judicial Official Justice Moraes said the move to detain the septuagenarian politician was a safety action after recent developments came to light.
This involved attempting to break his tracking device and a summons to a public vigil that could enable a potential flight.
Judicial Records Show Flight Fears
In a document approving the arrest, Justice Moraes said intelligence from the facility tracking his home detention suggested the one-time head of state's aim to disable the tracking monitor to secure accomplishment in his flight.
This, it said, would be assisted by the confusion caused by the protest called by his child.
His offspring, Flávio, who works as a legislator, called for a meeting of his followers near Bolsonaro's home to take place on Saturday night.
His son wrote on social media on last Friday: Will you battle for your nation, or watch it all from your smartphone there on your couch? I invite you to struggle with us."
He said the gathering would be so followers could seek divine intervention for his health and for the restoration of democratic rule in our country."
Embassy Asylum Concerns
Part of the judge's decision was the chance of Bolsonaro's move to foreign missions near the home, considering that the probes revealed a history of organizing to ask for protection through a consular facility", a declaration said.
The court filing highlights that the American diplomatic mission in the federal district, the capital city, is located around 8 miles from his dwelling.
Worldwide Consequences
Bolsonaro's legal woes have generated frustration from fellow conservative nationalist American leader Trump, causing him to impose a half-rate duty on imports of Brazilian goods.
The former president is being held in a national police facility in the capital and will experience a imprisonment assessment on the following day.
Recent Judicial Appeals
It was only on Friday that the his legal team asked the Supreme Court to authorize him to complete his entire prison term under domestic detention, with electronic monitoring.
They also asked that the former president be authorized to leave his home for medical treatment, saying he demanded regular treatment for lung conditions and other ailments.
Context of Sentencing
Bolsonaro was convicted of heading a plot aimed at maintaining his control after he failed to win the presidential race to his political opponent, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Supreme Court justices said that he was aware of a plot which involved plans to kill the current president and his running partner, Geraldo Alckmin, and to imprison and murder Alexandre de Moraes - the top judicial official who has been presiding over his judicial proceedings.
The plot was thwarted because it couldn't obtain the endorsement of the army and air force commanders. Lula was inaugurated without problem on January 1st, 2023.
But a seven days after, on January 8th, thousands of his followers invaded and destroyed government buildings 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 encouraged by him whose strategy, they said, was for the national armed forces to step in, restore order and return him to office.
At the moment, Bolsonaro's lawyers called the decades-long sentence unreasonably severe".
He was also banned from campaigning for office until the year 2060 - a decade minus two years after the end of his sentence.
The former president called the legal proceedings a political persecution and said it was aimed at blocking him participating in the 2026 presidential election.
