Police open investigation into the Naoum case.

247 - A new investigation, opened by the Civil Police of the Federal District on Wednesday the 11th, should shed light on the editorial partnership between Veja magazine and the racketeer Carlos Cachoeira. The investigation aims to determine how the images from the internal cameras of the Hotel Naoum, in Brasília, were stolen, images that were featured in the report "The Godfather," about José Dirceu's influence in the federal government, published in August of last year.

The report, which revealed only that Dirceu maintained contacts with PT (Workers' Party) figures such as José Sergio Gabrielli and Fernando Pimentel, became a scandal less for its content and more for Veja magazine's actions. Reporter Gustavo Ribeiro, from the magazine, attempted to break into the former Chief of Staff's room, but was prevented by the hotel maid. Dirceu requested an investigation into unlawful entry, but it was dismissed because Ribeiro's attempt was unsuccessful.

Now, a new wiretap from Operation Monte Carlo, obtained by Carta Capital, shows a conversation between the informant Jairo Martins, a regular source of Policarpo Júnior, and the illegal gambling operator Carlos Cachoeira. In the conversation, they discuss obtaining images from the Hotel Naoum's internal security cameras. Jairo had been discussing this with hotel employees, but Cachoeira insisted that he be given credit. "Yeah, but you have to tell Caneta it was me, you know?" Caneta was Policarpo Júnior's nickname.

In other conversations intercepted by the Federal Police, it had already become clear that Cachoeira was behind the accusation. He spoke to Demóstenes Torres about the matter days before, as if the Veja magazine cover was capable of setting the Republic ablaze. In the end, it backfired, a fact that can now be clarified by the Federal District Police.

Read below a post on José Dirceu's blog about the case:

The importance of investigating the facts surrounding the Hotel Naoum.

There can be no one, nor any activity that takes place in our country, that is above the law. This simple and basic precept of democracy was at risk of being disregarded in the case of the invasion of my privacy by a reporter from VEJA magazine, when I maintained my political office at the Hotel Noum in Brasília.

You must remember, I have dealt with the issue numerous times here on the blog. According to Carta Capital, which is on newsstands today, in a report by Leandro Fortes, on Wednesday of this week (11) a police investigation was opened at the 5th Civil Police Station of the Federal District to investigate the theft of images taken by security cameras of parliamentarians and authorities in the corridors of the Hotel Naoum.

Strange and inexplicable things happened with the privacy invasion case that was underway in Brasília against the Veja reporter. The police chief Edson Medina de Oliveira, who presided over the investigation and indicted reporter Gustavo Ribeiro, also recommending that the District Public Prosecutor's Office proceed with the case in court, was abruptly and without any explanation removed from the 5th Police Station. On December 19th of last year, prosecutor Bruno Osmar Freitas requested the case be dismissed “based on a confusing argument,” writes Fortes.

A little over a month later, on January 24, 2012, Judge Raimundo Silvino da Costa Neto accepted the promoter's request and the case was closed. Thus, there would have been no crime of invasion of privacy because the reporter, denounced by a hotel chambermaid, ended up fleeing down the hotel stairs before being caught by security guards, who were put on his trail by manager Rogério Tonatto. A strange argument.

Theft of images

Now, the new investigation deals with something else: the theft of images of people entering and leaving my office at the Hotel Naoum. According to audios from Operation Monte Carlo cited by Leandro Fortes, there were negotiations between the illegal gambling operator Carlinhos Cachoeira, spies who worked for him, and the director of Veja magazine in Brasília, Policarpo Júnior, so that the images captured by the hotel's security cameras could be used in the report that the magazine published about my activities the week after the attempted break-in at my office.

There are several aspects of the story that deserve to be known, and for that I recommend reading the article "The Naoum Scheme" in this week's Carta Capital. What is important to highlight is the difficulty in bringing a case against the magazine in question and one of its reporters to a proper conclusion, even though an investigation has been conducted and the facts have been duly documented, clearly demonstrating an attempt to commit the crime, with the perpetrator identified and everything. I hope this new investigation goes to the end, revealing another aspect of the magazine's criminal activities and resulting in the punishment of those involved, because it is evident that a crime occurred since the images were indeed published by the magazine.

And may the investigation shed light on the workings of the "web of relationships between the illegal gambling operator Carlinhos Cachoeira and Veja magazine," as Leandro writes at the beginning of the report.