Bolsonaro has been detained after authorities determined he posed a definite escape threat while under house arrest.
The one-time leader was found guilty of orchestrating a government overthrow in September and given more than 27 years in incarceration, but he continued under home detention pending legal challenges.
Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Justice Moraes said the decision to arrest the elderly politician was a preventative measure after recent developments came to light.
This included trying to remove his electronic bracelet and a summons to a public vigil that could "allow for a possible escape.
Legal Document Reveals Flight Fears
In a filing authorising the detention, Justice Moraes said intelligence from the unit overseeing his home detention suggested the one-time head of state's aim to disable the tracking monitor to ensure success in his flight.
This, it said, would be "facilitated by the confusion caused by the protest called by his child.
His son, Flávio Bolsonaro, who serves as a congressional representative, called for a assembly of his supporters near the former president's residence to take place on Saturday night.
His son wrote on social media on last Friday: "Are you going to fight for your homeland, or see it all from your phone there on your sofa? I urge you to struggle with us."
He said the gathering would be so supporters could seek divine intervention for his health and for the restoration of democratic rule in our nation."
Embassy Asylum Concerns
Part of Justice Moraes's ruling was the potential of the former president's move to diplomatic missions near the home, considering that the probes revealed a history of arranging to ask for protection through a embassy office", a announcement said.
The legal document emphasizes that the US embassy in the federal district, Brazil's capital, is located around 8 miles from his dwelling.
International Reactions
His judicial problems have drawn the ire of fellow populist conservative US President Trump, prompting him to enact a half-rate duty on goods coming from Brazil.
The former president is being detained in a national police facility in Brasilia and will undergo a custody hearing on the following day.
Latest Court Petitions
It was only on Friday that the former president's lawyers asked the Supreme Court to allow him to fulfill his full incarceration period under domestic detention, with digital surveillance.
They also asked that Bolsonaro be permitted to leave his home for medical treatment, saying he required frequent medical attention for respiratory ailments and other illnesses.
Details of Guilty Verdict
He was found guilty of orchestrating a conspiracy aimed at retaining his authority after he failed to win the 2022 election to his ideological adversary, Lula.
High Court judges said that he knew of a scheme which encompassed plans to assassinate Lula and his running partner, his vice-presidential candidate, and to detain and kill Justice Moraes - the Supreme Court justice who has been overseeing the former president's case.
The scheme was stopped because it didn't receive the support of the military leaders. The current president was took office without incident on the first day of 2023.
But a seven days after, on January 8th, numerous Bolsonaro supporters stormed and vandalised official structures in the capital, Brasília.
The security forces stepped in and around fifteen hundred individuals were arrested.
The magistrates found that the protesters had been provoked by the former president whose strategy, they said, was for the country's army to step in, restore order and reinstate his authority.
At the moment, his attorneys called the over 27-year sentence extremely harsh.
He was also prohibited from seeking elected position until twenty-sixty - a decade minus two years after the conclusion of his imprisonment.
The former president called the legal proceedings a targeted investigation" and said it was designed to prevent him running in the next presidential race.
