Jair Bolsonaro has been taken into custody after authorities concluded he posed a definite escape threat while under house arrest.
The former head of state was found guilty of planning a armed takeover in last fall and handed more than 27 years in prison, but he was staying under confinement pending legal challenges.
Top Judicial Official Alexandre de Moraes said the decision to arrest the septuagenarian politician was a preventative measure after "new facts" emerged.
This included attempting to break his electronic bracelet and a call for a supporters' gathering that could "allow for a chance to flee".
Legal Document Reveals Flight Fears
In a document approving the custody, the judge said intelligence from the centre monitoring Bolsonaro's house arrest suggested the ex-president's plan to remove the surveillance device to secure accomplishment in his escape.
This, it said, would be "facilitated by the disorder caused by the gathering called by his offspring.
His offspring, his son Flávio, who works as a congressional representative, called for a gathering of his followers near Bolsonaro's home to take place on Saturday evening.
His son wrote on social media on Friday: Will you battle for your nation, or see it all from your smartphone there on your couch? I call on you to fight with us."
He said the vigil would be so supporters could "pray for his health and for the return of democracy in our nation."
Embassy Asylum Concerns
Part of the magistrate's ruling was the potential of Bolsonaro's "relocation to diplomatic missions near the residence, considering that the probes revealed a record of organizing to request asylum through a embassy office", a announcement said.
The court filing highlights that the United States embassy in the federal district, Brasilia, is located around 13km from the former president's residence.
International Reactions
His judicial problems have provoked anger from fellow right-wing populist American leader Donald Trump, causing him to enact a half-rate duty on Brazilian product imports.
Bolsonaro is being held in a national police facility in Brazil's capital city and will undergo a detention review on the following day.
Latest Court Petitions
It was only on the previous day that the ex-leader's attorneys asked the Supreme Court to permit him to fulfill his full incarceration period under house arrest, with electronic monitoring.
They also petitioned that Bolsonaro be permitted to leave his home for medical treatment, saying he demanded ongoing care for lung conditions and other ailments.
Details of Guilty Verdict
Bolsonaro was found guilty of heading a conspiracy aimed at retaining his authority after he lost the 2022 election to his ideological adversary, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Top judicial officials said that he knew of a plan which included plans to assassinate Lula and his running partner, Alckmin, and to imprison and murder the presiding judge - the top judicial official who has been presiding over Bolsonaro's trial.
The conspiracy was prevented because it didn't receive the backing of the army and air force commanders. His successor was inaugurated without problem on the first day of 2023.
But a seven days after, on January 8th, numerous his followers invaded and destroyed public facilities in the capital, the capital city.
The security forces stepped in and around fifteen hundred individuals were arrested.
The magistrates found that the demonstrators had been encouraged by Bolsonaro whose strategy, they said, was for the national armed forces to take action, bring back stability and return him to office.
At the period, Bolsonaro's lawyers called the 27 years and three months sentence "absurdly excessive.
He was also barred from campaigning for office until 2060 - a decade minus two years after the conclusion of his imprisonment.
The one-time head of state called the court case a political persecution and said it was designed to prevent him running in the next presidential race.
