Sao Paulo | Brazil's federal police arrested former President Jair Bolsonaro preemptively on Saturday, days before he was set to begin his 27-year prison sentence for leading a coup attempt, officials said.

A close aide said the embattled former leader was taken to the police force headquarters in the capital, Brasilia.

The force said in a short statement, which did not name Bolsonaro, that it acted on the request of Brazil's Supreme Court.

Neither Brazil's federal police nor the Supreme Court provided more details.

Bolsonaro's aide Andriely Cirino confirmed to The Associated Press that the arrest took place around 6 am on Saturday.

The 70-year-old former president was taken from his house in a gated community in the upscale Jardim Botanico neighbourhood to the federal police headquarters, Cirino said.

Local media reported that Bolsonaro, who was Brazil's president from 2019 to 2022, was expected to begin serving his sentence sometime next week after the far-right leader exhausted all appeals of his conviction for leading a coup attempt.