Brazil’s Supreme Court on Monday unanimously upheld the pre-emptive arrest of former President Jair Bolsonaro after he used a soldering iron to try to remove his electronic ankle bracelet while under house arrest over the weekend, Anadolu news agency reported on Tuesday.
Bolsonaro, 70, was taken into custody early Saturday and is currently being held at the federal police headquarters in Brasilia.
He had been under house arrest since August, awaiting a 27-year prison sentence for his role in the 2022 coup attempt, in which he sought to remain in office after losing the presidential election to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
A four-member Supreme Court panel unanimously approved the continuation of the preemptive arrest.
Judge Alexandre de Moraes, who issued the first arrest warrant on Saturday, deemed Bolsonaro a flight risk and cited violations of judicial restraints.
In his ruling, he called Bolsonaro’s “grave foul play, repeated failure to comply with precautionary measures and clear contempt for the court”, noting that Bolsonaro had confessed to breaking his ankle monitoring device.
Bolsonaro told an assistant judge on Sunday that a change in his medication for chronic hiccups caused him to have a nervous breakdown and hallucinations, and that he tried to break his ankle monitor.
The former president was previously prohibited from using social media and receiving unauthorized visitors.
The first panel of the Supreme Court reviewed and unanimously rejected the appeals of all the defendants convicted in the coup plot case.