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A criminal complaint filed by 131 retired Federal Police chiefs was sent to the Attorney General’s Office (PGR) in Brasilia against the Supreme Federal Court (STF) Minister Alexandre de Moraes. They accused Moraes of abusing his authority when he authorized an operation to investigate businessmen that were allegedly supporting a coup d’état through a WhatsApp group.
The complaint claimed that there was no reason to start the operation and that Moraes orders were illegal, including the search and seizure warrants; the breach of bank secrecy; the blocking of profiles on social networks; the blocking of all bank accounts and the inquiries. In the document, the police chiefs stated that the theme was being discussed, however there was no evidence of acts to actually conduct the coup d’état. On Monday (26), the American newspaper New York Times also questioned if the court had not gone beyond its legal attributions.
The case
On August 28th, 2022, Alexandre de Moraes deferred a request made by the Federal Police to fulfil search and seizure warrants in 5 states: Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Ceará. The targets were the businessmen Luciano Hang (Havan), Meyer Nigri (Tecnisa), Afrânio Barreira Filho (Coco Bambu), Ivan Wrobel (W3 Engenharia), José Isaac Peres (Multiplan), José Koury (Shopping Barra World), Luiz André Tissot (Sierra group) e Marco Aurélio Raymundo (Mormaii). The accused were members of a WhatsApp group with 200 participants in which its was mentioned that a coup d’état was preferable over a return of Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT), represented by the former president and candidate Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva, to the presidency.
Motivation
Moraes stated in the order that there were ‘strong indications’ and ‘significant evidence’ pointing to the existence of a criminal organization identical to those investigated in the digital militia investigation, “with the clear purpose of undermining democracy”. The digital militia investigation started in April 2020, to identify the organizers and financiers of a series of protests calling for the closure of Congress and the STF and the return of the military dictatorship. In his decision he mentioned possible crimes: violent abolition of the democratic rule of law, attempted disruption of the electoral process, and criminal association. He also highlighted the “great socioeconomic capacity of the investigated group, revealing the potential for financing illicit digital activities and inciting the practice of antidemocratic acts.”
The Point of Controversy
However, the Federal Police only required the search and seizure of cell phones and the lifting of telematic and WhatsApp secrecy of the accused. Moraes added other measures: the apprehension of physical hardware, blocking of bank accounts of the businessmen, lifting of banking secrecy of the businessmen and some of their companies and blocking the profiles of the social networks of the accused. According to the complaint, the investigation focuses on alleged crimes against the democratic rule of law, but such crime requires ‘violence or serious threat’, which, in the group’s view, did not exist in the discussion.
What the Federal Police Says
The retired police chiefs’ initiative was not recognized by the National Federation of Federal Police Chiefs (Fenadepol), which said the demonstration was signed by a minority group of retired police chiefs that represents only 10% of the corporation’s retirees.
