The Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, dismissed this Tuesday the number two of the country’s intelligence agency, Alessandro Moretti, investigated for illegal espionage during the presidency of Jair Bolsonaro, according to a note published in the Official Gazette of the Union. The political scientist Marco Aurelio Cepik was named his replacement.
The Federal Police are investigating the deputy director of the Brazilian Intelligence Agency (Abin), as suspected of having been part of a clandestine network that used the Israeli FirstMile program to illegally spy on hundreds of politicians and public figures during the Bolsonaro presidency (2019). -2022).
The scandal broke out last Thursday, when Brazil’s Supreme Court unveiled documents in which Abin was accused of monitoring political and judicial figures critical of former President Bolsonaro. Among the alleged targets of the illegal eavesdropping were three judges of the Supreme Court and a president of the Lower House of Brazil’s Congress.
Among those investigated is Carlos Bolsonaro, councilor of Rio de Janeiro and son of the former president. Supreme Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes said police had identified Bolsonaro’s son as part of the “political core” suspected of ordering the illegal espionage.
This Tuesday, Carlos Bolsonaro gave a statement to the Police regarding some WhatsApp messages in which an advisor supposedly asked the Abin management for sensitive information about open cases against the family of the then president. On Monday, police searched his home and office. Police also went to a residence of the Bolsonaro family in Angra dos Reis, a spa town about 150 kilometers from Rio de Janeiro.
Former President Bolsonaro complained of being “persecuted” by the current Government. “That’s nonsense,” Lula responded Tuesday in an interview with CBN radio. “The Brazilian government has no control over the federal police, much less over the judiciary,” added the leftist president. Asked if he had confidence in Abin’s current team, Lula responded: “We are never sure.” But he added that he had “a lot of confidence” in the department’s current director, Luiz Fernando Corrêa.
Sentenced to eight years of disqualification for spreading false information about the Brazilian electronic voting system, Jair Bolsonaro has been surrounded by court cases since he lost the presidential elections to Lula at the end of 2022.
