RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazil’s federal police accused former president Jair Bolsonaro and 35 others of involvement in a sprawling scheme that used the nation’s intelligence company to spy on members of the judiciary, lawmakers and journalists. The seal on the 1,125-page doc, which provides to the far-right chief’s woes, was lifted by the nation’s Supreme Court docket on Wednesday.
The federal police doc mentioned Bolsonaro was each conscious of the scheme and its most important beneficiary. Investigator Daniel Carvalho Brasil Nascimento, who chairs the probe, named one of many former president’s sons, Rio de Janeiro councilor Carlos Bolsonaro, as a key plot member. The police investigation focuses on a so-called parallel construction in Brazil’s intelligence company.
“(Bolsonaro and Carlos) had been liable for the definitions of the prison group’s strategic tips, for selecting the targets of the clandestine actions (towards opponents, establishments, the electoral system) so they’d politically achieve from these operations,” the federal police mentioned. “They’re the choice middle and the principle recipients of illicit benefits.”
Bolsonaro, who ruled between 2019 and 2022 and is already barred by Brazil’s electoral courtroom from working in subsequent yr’s elections, is standing on trial over allegations that he tried a coup to remain in workplace regardless of his 2022 defeat to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. He denies any wrongdoing and claims he’s being politically persecuted.
One of many counts Bolsonaro can be sentenced on within the coup case is exactly on main a prison group, which stopped federal police from requesting the identical for the accusations revealed on Wednesday, as each investigations entwine.
“If he had been accused once more for a similar details, this may almost certainly come up towards a prohibition referred to as prohibition obis in idem, a Latin method which means double punishment or double accusation for a similar act,” mentioned João Pedro Padua, a regulation professor on the Fluminense Federal College.
The proof revealed on Wednesday can nonetheless be used within the coup probe.
Celso Vilardi, a lawyer for Bolsonaro, instructed the The Related Press he was but to research the federal police report and its accusations towards his shopper.
Brazil’s federal police additionally accused Luiz Fernando Corrêa, the pinnacle of the nation’s intelligence company below Lula, of undue interference in investigations. On Tuesday, staffers of the company issued a press release to push for Corrêa’s resignation. He didn’t reply a request for remark.
Brazil’s Supreme Court docket will hand the police investigation to Prosecutor-Normal Paulo Gonet, who will determine whether or not the investigation can be taken to the Supreme Court docket for trial.
Final yr, police arrested 5 individuals in reference to the case, below the suspicion that the Brazilian intelligence company was being misused.
Court docket paperwork confirmed then a number of authorities had been below unlawful investigation, together with former audio system Arthur Lira and Rodrigo Maia, Supreme Court docket justices, officers of Brazil’s environmental company Ibama, former Sao Paulo Gov. João Doria and distinguished political journalists.
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Savarese reported from Sao Paulo.
