Bolsonaro has been taken into custody after authorities found he posed a serious risk of fleeing while under domestic detention.
The ex-president was convicted of plotting a government overthrow in September and sentenced more than over two decades in incarceration, but he continued under home detention pending appeals.
Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Justice Moraes said the decision to arrest the septuagenarian politician was a precautionary step after fresh information were revealed.
This involved trying to remove his ankle monitor and a invitation to a supporters' gathering that could enable a potential flight.
Legal Document Reveals Escape Concerns
In a document approving the custody, the judge said information from the unit overseeing the former president's confinement suggested the former leader's "intention to break the tracking monitor to secure accomplishment in his escape.
This, it said, would be "facilitated by the disorder caused by the demonstration called by his child.
His child, his son Flávio, who works as a congressional representative, called for a meeting of his supporters near Bolsonaro's home to take place on Saturday evening.
The senator wrote on social media on last Friday: "Are you going to fight for your country, or observe everything from your mobile device there on your couch? I invite you to fight with us."
He said the vigil would be so supporters could offer prayers for his physical condition and for the restoration of democratic rule in our country."
Diplomatic Refuge Fears
Part of Justice Moraes's determination was the possibility of Bolsonaro's "relocation to diplomatic missions near the home, considering that the probes revealed a background of organizing to seek refuge through a diplomatic representation", a statement said.
The judicial paperwork highlights that the American diplomatic mission in the federal district, the capital city, is located around 13km from his dwelling.
International Reactions
Bolsonaro's legal woes have provoked anger from fellow right-wing populist American leader President Trump, leading him to impose a fifty percent tax on Brazilian product imports.
Bolsonaro is being kept in a national police facility in the capital and will experience a imprisonment assessment on Sunday.
Latest Court Petitions
It was only on Friday that the ex-leader's attorneys asked the Top Court to allow him to serve his whole jail sentence under house arrest, with electronic monitoring.
They also asked that the former president be authorized to leave his home for healthcare, saying he needed ongoing care for lung conditions and other health problems.
Details of Guilty Verdict
The former president was found guilty of leading a conspiracy aimed at maintaining his control after he lost the national vote to his ideological adversary, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Top judicial officials said that he knew of a scheme which involved plans to assassinate Lula and his VP candidate, his vice-presidential candidate, and to arrest and execute the presiding judge - the Supreme Court justice who has been overseeing the former president's case.
The plot was thwarted because it couldn't obtain the endorsement of the military leaders. The current president was took office without problem on 1 January 2023.
But a following week, on the eighth of January, numerous Bolsonaro supporters stormed and vandalised official structures in the national capital, Brazil's capital.
The security forces took action and around 1,500 people were taken into custody.
The magistrates found that the rioters had been incited by Bolsonaro whose scheme, they said, was for the Brazilian military to intervene, bring back stability and reinstate his authority.
At the time, Bolsonaro's lawyers called the 27 years and three months sentence extremely harsh.
He was also barred from campaigning for office until twenty-sixty - a decade minus two years after the end of his sentence.
The former president called the court case a "witch hunt and said it was aimed at blocking him competing in the next presidential race.
