SAO PAULO — Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro was under arrest on Saturday over suspicion he was plotting to avoid starting a 27-year prison sentence for leading a coup attempt.

Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who oversaw the case on Bolsonaro’s attempt to keep the presidency after his defeat to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in 2022, ordered the preemptive arrest after saying the far-right leader’s ankle monitor was violated at 12:08 a.m. on Saturday.

Bolsonaro, 70, who had been under house arrest, was ordered to wear the device after being deemed a flight risk.

The former president, who is an ally of U.S. President Donald Trump, was taken to the headquarters of the country’s federal police in the capital, Brasilia, from his home.

Bolsonaro’s aide Andriely Cirin

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