First modification:
A magistrate of the Brazilian Supreme Court ordered President Jair Bolsonaro to appear this Friday at the headquarters of the Regional Superintendence of the Federal Police of Brasilia for having revealed secret police reports in order to discredit the country’s electoral system.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is currently under investigation for having disclosed secret police documents. His unsuccessful campaign to discredit him against the country’s current electronic voting system has led him to now be summoned by the courts to appear for disclosing secret information.
The new case involves Bolsonaro’s leaking of an investigation by authorities into a hacking attack against the Superior Electoral Tribunal (TSE), Brazil’s highest electoral authority, a few months before the presidential elections he won in 2018.
Bolsonaro used information from his social media accounts to argue that Brazil’s electronic voting system was vulnerable to manipulation and fraud. According to several critics, the president was preparing the ground to question the results of the elections if he lost the second round at that time.
The Supreme Court rejects an appeal by Bolsonaro not to attend the appointment
This Thursday, January 27, during the live broadcast that Bolsonaro makes weekly through his social networks, the president did not make any reference to the matter.
Judge Alexandre de Moraes, who informed the president about his summons to appear before the Regional Superintendency of the Federal Police of Brasilia, rejected an appeal from the State Attorney’s Office, which requested that the president be excused from interrogation.
De Moraes said in his opinion that Bolsonaro had requested an additional period of 60 days, citing scheduling problems. But, the magistrate gave him a maximum term until January 28.
“In a Republic, the investigated person, whoever he is, is normally subject to the scope of the coercive powers of the State necessary” to “ensure the reliability” of the legal process, which includes “being summoned for an interrogation,” said the magistrate.
In addition to this process, the Justice is investigating the president for another case in which he is related to the existence of alleged far-right “digital militias” that use the networks to undermine the image of democracy.
With EFE and Reuters
