Bolsonaro government defends spying on public servants; lawyers say it's unconstitutional.

247 - Following allegations that the Jair Bolsonaro government was investigating and creating dossiers Following the revelations of 579 public servants, the Ministry of Justice issued a statement defending the monitoring of opponents. The claim is that the measure aims to prevent potential illegal practices and guarantee security. However, the measure was the target of a lawsuit filed by the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office (MPF) demanding that the ministry... Explain The investigation and production of the reports is also considered unconstitutional by legal experts and specialists. 

"The intelligence activities carried out are based on the principles of legality, confidentiality, and segregation of information. Therefore, they are intended exclusively for public authorities who effectively need to prevent situations that pose a risk to public safety, according to each case," says the statement from the Ministry of Justice. The statement further clarifies that "Seopi [Secretariat of Integrated Operations] reiterates that its intelligence area operates within the strictest legality. Thus, obviously, it does not act to investigate, persecute, or punish citizens."

After allegations regarding the investigation of civil servants became public, the regional prosecutor for Citizens' Rights, Enrico Rodrigues de Freitas, granted a 10-day deadline for Seopi, subordinate to the Minister of Justice, André Mendonça, to explain the investigation and production of classified reports on opponents of the Bolsonaro government. These classified reports target a group of anti-fascist police officers, opposed to the current government, and university professors. 

According to jurist and PUC-SP professor Pedro Serrano, the production of dossiers against opponents is only paralleled by the period of the military dictatorship and violates the Constitution. “In a democracy, the State can investigate and monitor people when there is real suspicion of a crime. Otherwise, it's not an investigation, it's an intrusion. Furthermore, being anti-fascist is inherent to constitutional democracy. The 1988 Constitution is anti-fascist. Therefore, not only is there nothing illegal about being anti-fascist, but it is also desirable,” Serrano told the newspaper O Globe. 

According to Ivar Hartmann, a law professor at FGV, the monitoring and production of dossiers "is precisely the kind of thing that was used during the dictatorship as an excuse for indiscriminate repression. Regardless of whether this dossier is disclosed to other agencies, the mere act of producing it should already be punished, because the damage has already been done. It is a violation of freedom of expression similar to McCarthyism."