Bolsonaro has been detained after authorities concluded he posed a concrete flight risk while under domestic detention.
The former head of state was convicted of planning a military coup in last fall and handed more than over two decades in incarceration, but he remained under house arrest pending appeals.
Top Judicial Official the presiding justice said the move to detain the elderly politician was a safety action after fresh information emerged.
This involved seeking to disable his electronic bracelet and a summons to a supporters' gathering that could facilitate a possible escape.
Legal Document Reveals Escape Concerns
In a filing authorising the custody, the judge said intelligence from the centre monitoring Bolsonaro's house arrest suggested the former leader's plan to remove the tracking monitor to secure accomplishment in his flight.
This, it said, would be assisted by the chaos caused by the protest called by his son.
His child, Flávio Bolsonaro, who holds office as a congressional representative, called for a assembly of his followers near his father's house to take place on Saturday evening.
The senator wrote on social media on last Friday: Do you plan to struggle for your nation, or watch it all from your mobile device there on your sofa? I call on you to fight with us."
He said the demonstration would be so followers could "pray for his well-being and for the return of democracy in our country."
Embassy Asylum Concerns
Part of the judge's decision was the possibility of Bolsonaro's move to embassies near the residence, considering that the inquiries revealed a history of arranging to seek refuge through a consular facility", a statement said.
The judicial paperwork highlights that the US embassy in the federal district, the capital city, is located around 8 miles from Bolsonaro's home.
Global Responses
Bolsonaro's legal woes have drawn the ire of fellow right-wing populist American leader President Trump, prompting him to enact a fifty percent tax on goods coming from Brazil.
The former president is being held in a national police facility in the capital and will undergo a custody hearing on the following day.
Recent Legal Requests
It was only on the previous day that the ex-leader's attorneys asked the Supreme Court to authorize him to fulfill his full incarceration period under domestic detention, with digital surveillance.
They also requested that Bolsonaro be allowed to leave his home for medical care, saying he demanded frequent medical attention for lung conditions and other ailments.
Context of Sentencing
The former president was determined responsible of heading a scheme aimed at keeping him in power after he lost the presidential race to his ideological adversary, President Lula.
High Court judges said that he had knowledge of a scheme which involved plans to murder the current president and his VP candidate, Geraldo Alckmin, and to detain and kill the presiding judge - the Supreme Court justice who has been managing Bolsonaro's trial.
The scheme was stopped because it couldn't obtain the endorsement of the armed forces officials. His successor was sworn in without problem on January 1st, 2023.
But a following week, on 8 January, thousands of his followers attacked and damaged public facilities in the national capital, the capital city.
The security forces stepped in and around 1,500 people were taken into custody.
The justices found that the rioters had been provoked by him whose strategy, they said, was for the national armed forces to take action, reestablish control and bring him back to power.
At the time, Bolsonaro's lawyers called the decades-long sentence extremely harsh.
He was also prohibited from running for public office until 2060 - a decade minus two years after the end of his sentence.
The one-time head of state called the court case a political persecution and said it was designed to prevent him running in the 2026 presidential election.
