The former president has denied wrongdoing as federal police accuse him of overseeing a spy ring targeting rivals
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.
