Bolsonaro has been arrested after authorities determined he posed a concrete flight risk while under domestic detention.
The ex-president was found guilty of plotting a military coup in the ninth month and sentenced more than over two decades in incarceration, but he continued under home detention pending legal challenges.
Top Judicial Official Alexandre de Moraes said the decision to arrest the 70-year-old politician was a precautionary step after fresh information emerged.
This included attempting to break his tracking device and a summons to a demonstration that could enable a possible escape.
Court Filing Details Escape Risks
In a filing authorising the arrest, the magistrate said intelligence from the facility tracking his home detention suggested the former leader's plan to remove the surveillance device to secure accomplishment in his escape.
This, it said, would be made easier by the chaos caused by the gathering called by his offspring.
His offspring, Flávio Bolsonaro, who works as a congressional representative, called for a gathering of his followers near the former president's residence to take place on Saturday night.
The senator wrote on social media on last Friday: Do you plan to struggle for your homeland, or observe everything from your smartphone there on your sofa? I invite you to fight with us."
He said the gathering would be so backers could "pray for his well-being and for the return of democracy in our nation."
Foreign Shelter Risks
Part of Justice Moraes's decision was the possibility of Bolsonaro's move to embassies near the residence, considering that the probes revealed a background of organizing to request asylum through a embassy office", a declaration said.
The legal document highlights that the US embassy in the national capital, Brasilia, is located around 8 miles from the former president's residence.
Worldwide Consequences
Bolsonaro's legal woes have drawn the ire of fellow populist conservative United States President Donald Trump, leading him to enact a 50% tariff on goods coming from Brazil.
He is being detained in a Federal Police station in the capital and will undergo a detention review on Sunday.
Recent Judicial Appeals
It was only on Friday that the his legal team asked the Supreme Court to permit him to fulfill his full incarceration period under home confinement, with tracking devices.
They also requested that he be permitted to depart his residence for medical care, saying he needed regular treatment for pulmonary infections and other illnesses.
Details of Guilty Verdict
The former president was convicted of heading a plot aimed at retaining his authority after he lost the presidential race to his political opponent, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Top judicial officials said that he knew of a plot which included plans to kill Lula and his running partner, Alckmin, and to imprison and murder Justice Moraes - the top judicial official who has been presiding over the former president's case.
The plot was prevented because it failed to get the endorsement of the military leaders. His successor was took office without incident on the first day of 2023.
But a week later, on 8 January, many Bolsonaro supporters invaded and destroyed public facilities in the national capital, Brasília.
The law enforcement stepped in and around approximately 1,500 persons were taken into custody.
The judges found that the rioters had been provoked by him whose strategy, they said, was for the Brazilian military to intervene, reestablish control and return him to office.
At the moment, his attorneys called the over 27-year sentence unreasonably severe".
He was also barred from campaigning for office until twenty-sixty - eight years after the end of his sentence.
The former president called the legal proceedings a targeted investigation" and said it was intended to stop him participating in the 2026 presidential election.
