Bolsonaro has been taken into custody after authorities determined he posed a serious risk of fleeing while under home confinement.
The ex-president was convicted of orchestrating a government overthrow in last fall and sentenced more than a 27-year term in jail, but he continued under confinement pending legal challenges.
High Court Judge the presiding justice said the decision to arrest the septuagenarian politician was a precautionary step after recent developments were revealed.
This involved trying to remove his tracking device and a summons to a public vigil that could facilitate a potential flight.
Judicial Records Show Flight Fears
In a filing authorising the arrest, the judge said intelligence from the centre monitoring his home detention suggested the ex-president's plan to remove the surveillance device to ensure success in his getaway".
This, it said, would be made easier by the confusion caused by the demonstration called by his offspring.
His child, his son Flávio, who works as a congressional representative, called for a assembly of his backers near the former president's residence to take place on Saturday night.
The senator wrote on online platforms on last Friday: Will you battle for your country, or see it all from your smartphone there on your sofa? I call on you to fight with us."
He said the demonstration would be so followers could "pray for his health and for the reestablishment of democratic governance in our nation."
Embassy Asylum Concerns
Part of Justice Moraes's decision was the possibility of Bolsonaro's "relocation to embassies near the dwelling, considering that the inquiries revealed a background of organizing to seek refuge through a diplomatic representation", a announcement said.
The judicial paperwork underscores that the American diplomatic mission in the national capital, Brazil's capital, is situated around approximately 13 kilometers from the former president's residence.
International Reactions
Bolsonaro's legal woes have generated frustration from fellow right-wing populist United States President Trump, causing him to implement a fifty percent tax on Brazilian product imports.
Bolsonaro is being detained in a national police facility in Brasilia and will have a custody hearing on the next day.
Recent Judicial Appeals
It was only on the previous day that the his legal team asked the Supreme Court to allow him to fulfill his full incarceration period under home confinement, with digital surveillance.
They also requested that Bolsonaro be authorized to leave his home for medical care, saying he needed regular treatment for lung conditions and other ailments.
Details of Guilty Verdict
The former president was determined responsible of heading a plot aimed at keeping him in power after he was defeated in the national vote to his left-wing rival, President Lula.
Supreme Court justices said that he had knowledge of a plot which encompassed plans to assassinate his opponent and his VP candidate, Geraldo Alckmin, and to detain and kill the presiding judge - the High Court judge who has been overseeing the former president's case.
The plot was prevented because it didn't receive the backing of the army and air force commanders. The current president was took office without incident on the first day of 2023.
But a following week, on 8 January, many his backers stormed and vandalised government buildings in the national capital, the capital city.
The security forces took action and around approximately 1,500 persons were taken into custody.
The magistrates found that the rioters had been encouraged by him whose strategy, they said, was for the national armed forces to intervene, restore order and return him to office.
At the moment, his attorneys called the decades-long sentence unreasonably severe".
He was also prohibited from running for public office until twenty-sixty - eight years later after the conclusion of his imprisonment.
The former president called the trial a "witch hunt and said it was intended to stop him running in the next presidential race.