A Brazilian Supreme Court judge summons Bolsonaro to testify for leaking confidential information

MADRID, Jan. 28 (Royals Blue) –

The Supreme Court of Brazil has summoned President Jair Bolsonaro to appear before the Superintendence of the Federal Police in Brasilia for the alleged leak of confidential information through his social networks in an unfinished investigation into computer attacks on the Superior Electoral Court (TSE).

“Given that the President of the Republic has not indicated the place, day and time for his interrogation within the set period of 60 days, I determine his summons through the Attorney General’s Office (AGU) to appear on January 28, 2022 at 2:00 p.m. (local time), to give a personal statement,” Judge Alexandre de Moraes said, according to Agencia Brasil.

At the end of November, Moraes responded to a request from the Federal Police and determined that the Brazilian president had to testify within 15 days, so he still had the opportunity to set the place, day and time of the summons.

In this sense, Bolsonaro, who was aware of this decision, requested an additional period of 60 days to carry it out, alleging that the synchronization for the appointment was “impossible due to a series of external agenda commitments,” according to the portal of news ‘O Globe’.

In this Thursday’s decision, Moraes, who is the rapporteur of the investigation, has highlighted that the Brazilian president can exercise the constitutional right to silence, but cannot previously refuse to participate in the procedural acts.

“In a Republic, the person under investigation -whoever he may be- is normally subject to the scope of the coercive powers of the State necessary to ensure the reliability of the evidence, and may, where appropriate, submit to the search of his person or property, to give their impressions, fingerprints when authorized by law and to be summoned for questioning,” he stressed.

This summons is in addition to the decision of the Brazilian Attorney General’s Office, which opened six new investigations in December before the Supreme Court based on the final report of the Congressional commission that analyzed the government’s management of the pandemic.

In total, there were ten investigations presented by the Attorney General’s Office to the Supreme Court and which, in addition to the Brazilian president, would also implicate some of his ministers and several deputies allied with the Government.

The accusation proposals were based on the evidence presented by the Parliamentary Investigation Commission (CPI), which was in charge in the six months that it was active of analyzing the management of the pandemic by the Bolsonaro government, which in case could be accused of crimes against health, incitement to crime, or irregular use of public funds, among others.