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Federal police have formally accused Brazil’s former far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, of presiding over an illegal spying network which allegedly snooped on political rivals, journalists and environmentalists during his administration.
Bolsonaro is already facing the prospect of jail time over his alleged role in masterminding a military coup plot designed to help him keep power after losing the 2022 election to the leftwing veteran Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. There is broad consensus among analysts that Bolsonaro’s conviction is a foregone conclusion and the 70-year-old populist is expected to face arrest in the coming months once a supreme court trial concludes.
The latest accusations relate to a two-year federal police investigation into suspicions that a “parallel” intelligence agency was set up during Bolsonaro’s 2019-23 administration in order to monitor those considered government foes.
On Tuesday police accused Bolsonaro’s alleged former spy chief, Alexandre Ramagem – who ran Brazil’s intelligence agency, Abin, from 2019 to 2022 – of running the clandestine operation and accused more than 30 others of being involved, including the president’s politician son Carlos Bolsonaro.
The news website G1 said investigators had concluded that under Bolsonaro members of Abin “formed a criminal organization in order to monitor people and public authorities, invading mobile phones and computers”.
Some of the information gathered was allegedly provided to a covert social media team that operated within the presidential palace and allegedly used illegally collected information as ammunition to launch online attacks.
The targets reportedly included four supreme court ministers and powerful politicians including the former president of Brazil’s lower house, Arthur Lira, and the then governor of São Paulo, João Doria, a prominent right-wing rival to the president.
Journalists and public servants were also reportedly spied on, including Hugo Loss, a respected member of the environmental agency, Ibama, who was on the front line of efforts to protect the Amazon at a time when illegal loggers and miners were emboldened by Bolsonaro’s anti-environment rhetoric and climate denial.
Loss had worked closely with Bruno Pereira, the Indigenous expert and former government employee who was murdered in the rainforest region three years ago this month with the British journalist Dom Phillips.
The newspaper O Globo said police believed the Bolsonarista spy network was created in order “to make it possible for Bolsonaro to remain in the presidential chair”.
Bolsonaro, his son and Ramagem made no immediate comment on the accusations but have previously denied such charges.
