Brazil's former president, Jair Bolsonaro, has been ordered by the country's supreme court to start serving his 27-year sentence, even as what could be a very lengthy further appeals effort carries on.

He was convicted in September for plotting a coup, based on allegations he also cooperated with foreign influence, for not accepting the election results which brough President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to power. 

Bolsonaro, who only somewhat recently was living in Florida after which he returned to his home country to face and attempt to fight the charges, will reportedly begin this jail sentence in a 12 square meter room at a police base in the capital Brasilia.

Supreme court justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered him directly to jail after over the weekend police raided his home, where he was on house arrest, when it was learned he attempted to remove his ankle monitor, which showed signs of damage from a soldering iron.

Others among his top officials and supporters are also expected to begin serving out their sentences, reports The Guardian: 

Bolsonaro’s six co-conspirators were also ordered to start their sentences.

The former defense minister Gen Paulo Sérgio Nogueira de Oliveira, and the former minister for institutional security Gen Augusto Heleno were arrested and imprisoned in the Planalto Military Command in Brasília. They received sentences of 19 and 21 years respectively.

The former navy commander Adm Almir Garnier Santos, who received a 24-year sentence, was reportedly arrested by navy officials and held on a navy base.

Bolsonaro’s former defence minister, Gen Walter Braga Netto, who received a 26-year sentence, was already in custody having been arrested last December.

The former justice minister, Anderson Torres, who received a 24-year sentence, was expected to be sent to a penitentiary for police officers and other “special” prisoners in Brasília called Papudinha.

Still, the start of these jail terms could result in large-scale protests among what is still a significant pro-Bolsonaro base:

“He’s been kidnapped,” complained Ronny de Souza, a 43-year-old Bolsonaro activist, as he stood outside the federal police base where the politician was taken last weekend after being arrested amid suspicions he was about to abscond to a foreign embassy.

We detailed Saturday that federal police rushed to his residence to take him out of house arrest, and initiated what's being called a 'preventative arrest' - and he was whisked away to police headquarters in Brasilia. The arrest order issued from the country's top court came hours after his ankle monitor was shown to be violated at 12:08am on Saturday. From there, authorities considered Bolsonaro a flight risk, explaining he is in close proximity to foreign embassies where he might try and gain asylum.

Photos released by the court show the ankle monitor's cap heavily damaged, after he reportedly at one point took a soldering iron to it. According to The New York Times:

At first, Mr. Bolsonaro told the police that he had banged his ankle monitor causing it to malfunction, according to a report from the capital region’s prison authority.

But when an agent on the scene asked about the burn marks on the device, Mr. Bolsonaro admitted using a soldering iron to try to melt it. In a video of the exchange released by the authorities, Mr. Bolsonaro can be heard apparently telling the agent that he had started torching the monitor hours earlier.

His legal team has since claimed that "Bolsonaro would have no way of escaping" as he is "an elderly man who suffers from serious health problems.

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However, Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who has long been a political enemy (the US has even sanctioned him personally) as well as chief overseer of the case, described over the weekend, "He is located about 13 kilometers (8 miles) away from where the United States of America embassy lies, in a distance that can be covered in a 15-minute drive."