Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was detained on Saturday at his residence in Brazil’s capital days before he was due to begin a prison sentence for leading a coup attempt, according to CNN affiliate CNN Brasil.
In a statement, Federal Police said it executed a preventive arrest warrant that had been requested by the police themselves and authorized by the Supreme Court, CNN Brasil reported. He was arrested at his home in Brasília.
Sources told CNN Brasil that a vigil organized by Bolsonaro’s oldest son, Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, in front of the complex of residential buildings where the former president lives triggered the request for preventive detention.
Bolsonaro was sentenced earlier this year to 27 years in prison for plotting to remain in power after losing the 2022 election to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and has been under house arrest.
Four out of five justices on a Brazilian Supreme Court panel voted to convict Bolsonaro on all five counts in the landmark case.
As well as plotting a coup d’état, Bolsonaro was convicted of taking part in an armed criminal organization, attempting to abolish Brazil’s democratic order by force, committing violent acts against state institutions and damaging protected public property during the storming of government buildings by his supporters on January 8, 2023.
Bolsonaro has long insisted that the trial amounted to a political witch hunt.
Earlier this month, high-ranking military officials and a federal police officer were also sentenced to prison terms after a panel of Brazilian Supreme Court justices found them guilty of attempting a coup and plotting to kill Lula da Silva.
CNN’s Julia Vargas Jones and Michael Rios contributed reporting.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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