Bolsonaro has been taken into custody after authorities concluded he posed a definite escape threat while under home confinement.
The former head of state was found guilty of plotting a government overthrow in September and given more than over two decades in jail, but he remained under house arrest pending appeals.
Top Judicial Official the presiding justice said the decision to arrest the 70-year-old politician was a precautionary step after recent developments came to light.
This encompassed attempting to break his electronic bracelet and a call for a supporters' gathering that could "allow for a chance to flee".
Legal Document Reveals Escape Risks
In a paperwork permitting the arrest, Justice Moraes said information from the centre monitoring the former president's confinement suggested the former leader's plan to remove the surveillance device to secure accomplishment in his getaway".
This, it said, would be assisted by the disorder caused by the demonstration called by his child.
His child, Flávio Bolsonaro, who works as a legislator, called for a gathering of his followers near his father's house to take place on the weekend.
The senator wrote on digital networks on Friday: Do you plan to struggle for your homeland, or observe everything from your smartphone there on your settee? I invite you to struggle with us."
He said the gathering would be so followers could seek divine intervention for his well-being and for the return of democracy in our country."
Embassy Asylum Concerns
Part of the magistrate's decision was the chance of Bolsonaro's transfer to diplomatic missions near the home, considering that the inquiries revealed a background of planning to ask for protection through a diplomatic representation", a statement said.
The legal document highlights that the US embassy in the national capital, Brasilia, is positioned around 8 miles from his dwelling.
International Reactions
His judicial problems have provoked anger from fellow populist conservative US President Trump, leading him to impose a half-rate duty on Brazilian product imports.
He is being kept in a Federal Police station in Brasilia and will undergo a detention review on the next day.
Recent Legal Requests
It was only on last Friday that the former president's lawyers asked the Top Court to allow him to serve his whole jail sentence under house arrest, with digital surveillance.
They also requested that he be permitted to exit his dwelling for healthcare, saying he required regular treatment for lung conditions and other ailments.
Details of Guilty Verdict
He was found guilty of leading a scheme aimed at keeping him in power after he lost the 2022 election to his political opponent, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Supreme Court justices said that he had knowledge of a plan which included plans to murder Lula and his VP candidate, Geraldo Alckmin, and to detain and kill Justice Moraes - the High Court judge who has been overseeing his judicial proceedings.
The plot was thwarted because it failed to get the backing of the army and air force commanders. Lula was sworn in without incident on January 1st, 2023.
But a week later, on the eighth of January, many Bolsonaro supporters stormed and vandalised public facilities in the federal district, Brazil's capital.
The law enforcement took action and around fifteen hundred individuals were detained.
The judges found that the rioters had been provoked by him whose strategy, they said, was for the country's army to step in, 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 2060 - a decade minus two years after the end of his sentence.
The former president called the court case a political persecution and said it was designed to prevent him competing in the next presidential race.
