A Brazilian Supreme Court judge charged these ministers with a government minister and the director of the Intelligence Agency (Abin) for allegedly helping defend President Jair Bolsonaro’s eldest son in a corruption case.
Magistrate Cármen Lúcia Antunes gave the Minister of Institutional Security, the retired General of the Army Augusto Heleno Ribeiro, and the director of the Abin, Alexandre Ramagem, 24 hours to clarify the alleged preparation of reports to guide the lawyers for Senator Flavio Bolsonaro.
The president’s eldest son was formally prosecuted by the Public Prosecutor’s Office for the crimes of criminal organization, embezzlement, money laundering and misappropriation during his time as regional deputy for Rio de Janeiro.
Following a report in the magazine Época, Abin guided Flavio Bolsonaro in organizing his defense in this case which investigates a corrupt plot that, according to the Public Ministry, he led and which will now benefit from senator.
According to the Prosecutor’s Office, the eldest son of the head of state appropriated for years part or all of the salary of officials fraudulently hired for his office in the Legislative Assembly of Rio de Janeiro, as in reality they will not perform any function.
In this context, the magazine Época stated in a report published last Friday that the agents of the Abin, the secret services of the Brazilian state, prepared some documents with “instructions” for the defense of Flavio Bolsonaro in the so that he could get rid of the accusations, which for the time being has not happened.
Following the news, four opposition parties in the government asked the Attorney General’s Office to investigate the facts, which a day later reported that it did.
The minister had already assigned at the time in an official note, in which he denied any maneuver in favor of the senator and described as “false” the documents revealed by the publication.
However, Judge Antunes stated in her decision that the suspicions about Abin are “serious” and that there is a consolidated jurisprudence that prohibits the use of public bodies for fines of a personal nature, before which he asked for clarification to the above.
In a joint statement, the Ministry of Institutional Security and the Intelligence Agency said they would “wait for notification” of the ruling to “respond within the deadline” by the high court judge.