Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who was preventively detained this Saturday, tried to break the electronic ankle monitor that was tracking his movements in order to escape during a demonstration called in front of his house by one of his sons, according to the Supreme Court.

The far-right leader, sentenced to 27 years in prison for sedition and who had already been under house arrest since August, was arrested and taken to police custody to"guarantee public order," as the Supreme Court justified in its decision.

According to the arrest warrant, authorities detected a “violation of the electronic monitoring equipment ” that the former president was wearing at 00:08 local time (03:08 GMT) this Saturday.

“The information confirms the convicted man’s intention to break the electronic ankle monitor to ensure the success of his escape, facilitated by the confusion caused by the demonstration called by his son,” says the order of Judge Alexandre de Moraes, rapporteur of the trial.

The magistrate recalls that other allies of the former head of state (2019-2022) convicted or prosecuted for coup practices recently fled the country, including his son, Congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro and the former head of the Intelligence services Alexandre Ramagem.

The latter left Brazil clandestinely through the state of Roraima, bordering Venezuela, and headed for the United States.

The preventive detention order responds to a request from the Federal Police after another of the former president's sons, Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, called for a"vigil" in front of his father's house, who has been suffering from various health problems.

According to De Moraes, that protest was intended to obstruct the monitoring of the house arrest to which Bolsonaro had been subjected since August 4 for failing to comply with a series of precautionary measures in the context of the coup attempt.

In his opinion, “the alleged vigil ” put “ public order and the effectiveness of criminal law at risk ”.

“The commotion caused by the unlawful gathering of supporters of the convicted defendant has a high probability of jeopardizing the imposed house arrest and the effectiveness of the precautionary measures, facilitating a possible escape attempt by the defendant,” he added.

On September 11, Bolsonaro was sentenced to 27 years in prison by the Supreme Court for “leading” a coup plot to “perpetuate himself in power”, after losing the 2022 elections to the current ruler, the progressive Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

However, Saturday's pretrial detention does not mark the beginning of the execution of the sentence, which was expected in the coming weeks, following the Supreme Court's rejection of the first appeals against the sentence.

The sentence

He was sentenced to 27 years and three months in prison for attempting a coup against Lula da Silva in 2022, according to the ruling of the First Chamber of the Supreme Court.

By a vote of 4 to 1, five judges decided to sentence the leader of the Brazilian right and far right, accused of leading an armed criminal organization to cling to power after losing the 2022 elections against President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

With this 4-1 majority, Bolsonaro could not appeal the sentence to the full Supreme Court.

Along with Bolsonaro, the following were sentenced: Alexandre Ramagem, former director of the Brazilian Intelligence Agency (16 years in prison); Almir Garnier, former commander of the Navy (24 years in prison); Anderson Torres, former Minister of Justice and former Secretary of Security of the Federal District (24 years in prison); Augusto Heleno, former Minister of the Institutional Security Office (21 years in prison); Mauro Cid, former presidential advisor and whistleblower of the attempted coup; Paulo Sérgio Nogueira, former Minister of Defense (19 years in prison); and Walter Souza Braga Netto, former Chief of Staff (26 years in prison).

The final vote was cast by the president of the First Chamber, Cristiano Zanin, former lawyer for current president Lula da Silva, against whom Bolsonaro conspired after losing the 2022 elections, according to the court's findings. The majority was completed by Alexandre de Moraes, Cármen Lúcia, and Flávio Dino. Meanwhile, Luiz Fux voted against the Supreme Federal Court (STF) proceeding with the case.

“The evidence allows us to conclude that the accused intended to break the democratic rule of law,” Zanin said in his vote, which gave a four-to-one majority to the conviction of Bolsonaro and seven other defendants.

In Bolsonaro's case, the accusation made by the Attorney General's Office includes an aggravating factor, as it considers him the"head" of the "criminal organization" that tried to prevent Lula's inauguration.

According to the accusation made by the Attorney General's Office and accepted by four of the five judges, the conspiracy began in June 2021, a little over a year before the elections and when Lula was beginning to stand out in the polls.

The plot was developed in several phases and began with a harsh smear campaign against the country's institutions and electoral system, led by Bolsonaro himself, according to the indictment.

The conspiracy went from words to deeds after Lula won the October 2022 elections, with intense protests, attacks thwarted by the police, and encampments at the gates of military barracks where thousands of Bolsonaro supporters demanded that the army prevent Lula's inauguration.

The progressive leader finally assumed power on January 1, 2023, and a week later, thousands of far-right activists emerged from one of those camps in Brasilia to violently storm the headquarters of the Presidency, the Parliament, and the Supreme Court itself.

According to the prosecution, this action was the culmination of a coup plot that, according to the accusation, was “led” and personally directed by Bolsonaro, with the objective of “perpetuating himself in power” and installing “a dictatorship” in Brazil.