Brazil’s Bolsonaro used intelligence agency to spy on judges, lawmakers and journalists, police say

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 country’s intelligence agency to spy on members of the judiciary, lawmakers and journalists. The seal on the 1,125-page document, which adds to the far-right leader’s woes, was lifted by the country’s Supreme Court on Wednesday.

The federal police document said Bolsonaro was both aware of the scheme and its main beneficiary. Investigator Daniel Carvalho Brasil Nascimento, who chairs the probe, named one of the former president’s sons, Rio de Janeiro councilor Carlos Bolsonaro, as a key plot member. The police investigation focuses on a so-called parallel structure in Brazil’s intelligence agency.

“(Bolsonaro and Carlos) were responsible for the definitions of the criminal organization’s strategic guidelines, for choosing the targets of the clandestine actions (against opponents, institutions, the electoral system) so they would politically gain from these operations,” the federal police said. “They are the decision center and the main recipients of illicit advantages.”

Bolsonaro, who governed between 2019 and 2022 and is already barred by Brazil’s electoral court from running in next year’s elections, is standing on trial over allegations that he attempted a coup to stay in office despite his 2022 defeat to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. He denies any wrongdoing and claims he is being politically persecuted.

One of the counts Bolsonaro will be sentenced on in the coup case is precisely on leading a criminal organization, which stopped federal police from requesting the same for the accusations revealed on Wednesday, as both investigations entwine.

“If he were accused again for the same facts, this would most likely come up against a prohibition called prohibition obis in idem, a Latin formula that means double punishment or double accusation for the same act,” said João Pedro Padua, a law professor at the Fluminense Federal University.

The evidence revealed on Wednesday can still be used in the coup probe.

Celso Vilardi, a lawyer for Bolsonaro, told the The Associated Press he was yet to analyze the federal police report and its accusations against his client.

Brazil’s federal police also accused Luiz Fernando Corrêa, the head of the country’s intelligence agency under Lula, of undue interference in investigations. On Tuesday, staffers of the agency issued a statement to push for Corrêa’s resignation. He did not respond a request for comment.

Brazil’s Supreme Court will hand the police investigation to Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet, who will decide whether the investigation will be taken to the Supreme Court for trial.

Last year, police arrested five people in connection with the case, under the suspicion that the Brazilian intelligence agency was being misused.

Court documents showed then several authorities were under illegal investigation, including former speakers Arthur Lira and Rodrigo Maia, Supreme Court justices, officials of Brazil’s environmental agency Ibama, former Sao Paulo Gov. João Doria and prominent political journalists.