Bolsonaro has been detained after authorities determined he posed a concrete flight risk while under house arrest.
The ex-president was convicted of planning a armed takeover in September and sentenced more than over two decades in incarceration, but he was staying under confinement pending legal challenges.
Top Judicial Official Alexandre de Moraes said the decision to arrest the elderly politician was a precautionary step after recent developments came to light.
This included attempting to break his electronic bracelet and a invitation to a demonstration that could enable a possible escape.
Legal Document Reveals Escape Risks
In a document approving the detention, the magistrate said information from the centre monitoring Bolsonaro's house arrest suggested the ex-president's "intention to break the electronic ankle bracelet to guarantee victory in his escape.
This, it said, would be assisted by the confusion caused by the protest called by his son.
His child, Flávio Bolsonaro, who works as a legislator, called for a meeting of his supporters near Bolsonaro's home to take place on Saturday evening.
Flávio Bolsonaro wrote on digital networks on the previous day: Will you battle for your homeland, or see it all from your phone there on your sofa? I call on you to struggle with us."
He said the demonstration would be so supporters could offer prayers for his well-being and for the return of democracy in our nation."
Embassy Asylum Concerns
Part of Justice Moraes's ruling was the chance of the former president's move to foreign missions near the residence, considering that the inquiries revealed a history of planning to request asylum through a diplomatic representation", a announcement said.
The court filing emphasizes that the United States embassy in the national capital, Brasilia, is located around 13km from his dwelling.
Worldwide Consequences
The former president's legal troubles have generated frustration from fellow right-wing populist US President Trump, causing him to enact a half-rate duty on imports of Brazilian goods.
Bolsonaro is being held in a Federal Police station in Brazil's capital city and will undergo a imprisonment assessment on the next day.
Latest Court Petitions
It was only on last Friday that the ex-leader's attorneys asked the Supreme Court to allow him to complete his entire prison term under home confinement, with tracking devices.
They also asked that Bolsonaro be allowed to depart his residence for healthcare, saying he demanded regular treatment for respiratory ailments and other illnesses.
Details of Guilty Verdict
Bolsonaro was convicted of orchestrating a scheme aimed at maintaining his control after he lost the 2022 election to his ideological adversary, President Lula.
Top judicial officials said that he knew of a scheme which involved plans to assassinate the current president and his running partner, Geraldo Alckmin, and to arrest and execute Alexandre de Moraes - the top judicial official who has been overseeing his judicial proceedings.
The scheme was stopped because it didn't receive the support of the armed forces officials. Lula was took office without problem on the first day of 2023.
But a seven days after, on the eighth of January, many his followers stormed and vandalised public facilities in the capital, the capital city.
The security forces intervened and around fifteen hundred individuals were detained.
The magistrates found that the demonstrators had been provoked by him whose scheme, they said, was for the national armed forces to intervene, restore order and return him to office.
At the time, his attorneys called the decades-long sentence unreasonably severe".
He was also barred from campaigning for office until the year 2060 - a decade minus two years after the end of his sentence.
The former president called the trial a "witch hunt and said it was intended to stop him competing in the 2026 national vote.
