Jair Bolsonaro has been taken into custody after authorities determined he posed a serious risk of fleeing while under home confinement.
The one-time leader was sentenced of plotting a military coup in September and sentenced more than 27 years in prison, but he remained under house arrest pending legal challenges.
Top Judicial Official Justice Moraes said the action to imprison the 70-year-old politician was a precautionary step after "new facts" were revealed.
This involved trying to remove his tracking device and a call for a supporters' gathering that could enable a potential flight.
Court Filing Details Flight Fears
In a document approving the custody, the magistrate said data from the unit overseeing Bolsonaro's house arrest suggested the former leader's "intention to break the surveillance device to ensure success in his getaway".
This, it said, would be "facilitated by the chaos caused by the gathering called by his child.
His offspring, Flávio Bolsonaro, who serves as a senator, called for a assembly of his supporters near his father's house to take place on Saturday evening.
His son wrote on online platforms on Friday: Do you plan to struggle for your homeland, or observe everything from your mobile device there on your settee? I invite you to struggle with us."
He said the demonstration would be so supporters could seek divine intervention for his physical condition and for the return of democracy in our nation."
Foreign Shelter Risks
Part of the magistrate's decision was the possibility of his move to foreign missions near the residence, considering that the inquiries revealed a record of arranging to request asylum through a embassy office", a announcement said.
The judicial paperwork highlights that the United States embassy in the national capital, the capital city, is positioned around 8 miles from the former president's residence.
Global Responses
The former president's legal troubles have generated frustration from fellow right-wing populist American leader Trump, leading him to enact a half-rate duty on imports of Brazilian goods.
Bolsonaro is being detained in a Federal Police station in Brazil's capital city and will undergo a detention review on Sunday.
Recent Legal Requests
It was only on the previous day that the ex-leader's attorneys asked the Top Court to permit him to fulfill his full incarceration period under domestic detention, with electronic monitoring.
They also petitioned that he be allowed to depart his residence for medical care, saying he required regular treatment for pulmonary infections and other ailments.
Details of Guilty Verdict
Bolsonaro was found guilty of heading a scheme aimed at retaining his authority after he lost the presidential race to his political opponent, Lula.
High Court judges said that he knew of a plan which involved plans to assassinate the current president and his vice-presidential running mate, Alckmin, and to imprison and murder the presiding judge - the High Court judge who has been managing his judicial proceedings.
The plot was stopped because it failed to get the support of the armed forces officials. The current president was took office without issue on 1 January 2023.
But a seven days after, on the eighth of January, numerous his backers stormed and vandalised government buildings in the federal district, Brasília.
The police took action and around fifteen hundred individuals were taken into custody.
The magistrates found that the rioters had been provoked by him whose strategy, they said, was for the national armed forces to take action, restore order and bring him back to power.
At the period, Bolsonaro's lawyers called the decades-long sentence unreasonably severe".
He was also banned from running for public office until twenty-sixty - eight years later after the conclusion of his imprisonment.
The former president called the court case a "witch hunt and said it was designed to prevent him competing in the 2026 national vote.
