Bolsonaro has been taken into custody after authorities concluded he posed a concrete flight risk while under home confinement.
The one-time leader was found guilty of planning a armed takeover in last fall and given more than over two decades in prison, but he continued under home detention pending legal challenges.
High Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes said the action to imprison the septuagenarian politician was a preventative measure after recent developments emerged.
This involved seeking to disable his electronic bracelet and a summons to a demonstration that could enable a possible escape.
Court Filing Details Escape Risks
In a paperwork permitting the arrest, the magistrate said information from the facility tracking the former president's confinement suggested the ex-president's "intention to break the electronic ankle bracelet to guarantee victory in his getaway".
This, it said, would be assisted by the disorder caused by the gathering called by his son.
His offspring, Flávio, who serves as a senator, called for a gathering of his followers near the former president's residence to take place on Saturday night.
Flávio Bolsonaro wrote on social media on last Friday: Will you battle for your nation, or watch it all from your smartphone there on your sofa? I invite you to battle with us."
He said the gathering would be so supporters could "pray for his health and for the restoration of democratic rule in our land."
Embassy Asylum Concerns
Part of Justice Moraes's decision was the potential of his "relocation to diplomatic missions near the dwelling, considering that the investigations revealed a background of planning to ask for protection through a consular facility", a statement said.
The judicial paperwork emphasizes that the United States embassy in the federal district, the capital city, is positioned around 8 miles from his dwelling.
Worldwide Consequences
Bolsonaro's legal woes have provoked anger from fellow populist conservative US President Trump, causing him to enact a half-rate duty on imports of Brazilian goods.
He is being held in a national police facility in Brasilia and will undergo a custody hearing on Sunday.
Latest Court Petitions
It was only on last Friday that the former president's lawyers asked the Top Court to permit him to serve his whole jail sentence under house arrest, with tracking devices.
They also petitioned that Bolsonaro be authorized to depart his residence for medical treatment, saying he demanded frequent medical attention for respiratory ailments and other ailments.
Details of Guilty Verdict
The former president was convicted of heading a plot aimed at maintaining his control after he lost the 2022 election to his ideological adversary, Lula.
Supreme Court justices said that he was aware of a plot which encompassed plans to assassinate the current president and his VP candidate, Alckmin, and to arrest and execute Justice Moraes - the Supreme Court justice who has been overseeing Bolsonaro's trial.
The conspiracy was stopped because it failed to get the support of the military leaders. The current president was inaugurated without issue on 1 January 2023.
But a seven days after, on 8 January, many Bolsonaro supporters invaded and destroyed public facilities in the capital, Brasília.
The security forces took action and around 1,500 people were taken into custody.
The judges found that the protesters had been encouraged by him whose scheme, they said, was for the country's army to step in, bring back stability and return him to office.
At the time, the legal team called the decades-long sentence extremely harsh.
He was also barred from running for public office until twenty-sixty - a decade minus two years after the conclusion of his imprisonment.
The former president called the court case a targeted investigation" and said it was designed to prevent him participating in the 2026 presidential election.
