When he's the target, Protógenes prefers the gag.

247 – Eloquent when it comes to disclosing information to the media about confidential Federal Police operations, Congressman and delegate Protógenes Queiroz opts for media censorship when the topic is his public life. The Brasil247 news outlet received an extrajudicial summons this Tuesday, in which Adib Abdouni, Protógenes' lawyer, requests that a report from this website be taken down. In it, BBC London journalist Andrew Jennings states that an investigation should be conducted into why Protógenes received a credit card issued in Lugano, Switzerland, from Ricardo Teixeira, president of the CBF (Brazilian Football Confederation).

Read the report. here.

Lawyer Adib Abdouni obtained a four-line email from Andrew Jennings in which the journalist states during the interview that he had “never heard of” Protógenes – a statement suggesting that the 247 report may have put Protógenes' name in the Englishman's mouth. Furthermore, the interview was recorded. The question posed to Jennings was what he thought about Protógenes having received such a card from Teixeira. What the Englishman forgot is that the interview was recorded. Brasil247 reproduces the entire question and answer. At the end of the interview, talkative and with the recorder already off, Jennings repeatedly said, “You have to go after this congressman and see his connections with the bandit Ricardo Teixeira.” As can be heard in the recording, it was Andrew Jennings, not the reporter, who linked the fact that a foreigner had a card in Lugano to something typical of Italian mobsters.

In his notification, lawyer Adib Abdouni states that, in light of the news report, Protógenes “experienced and continues to experience undue distress, shaking his moral standing.” Adib Abdouni continues: “The notifying party, a federal deputy active in the national political scene, of impeccable reputation and upright conduct, feels embarrassed before society and, especially, before his voters, insofar as the narrated facts are biased, degrading, and, above all, untrue.”

Adib Abdouni also protests the fact that the Brasil247 report raised questions about the integrity of Protógenes Queiroz's assets – whose origin has long been questioned by the media. Former police chief Protógenes Queiroz, even protected by a parliamentary mandate, is the target of an investigation in the Supreme Federal Court for illegal wiretapping, prevarication, and passive corruption. See some links on both topics:

http://www.conjur.com.br/2011-jun-30/demarco-amorim-sao-investigados-corromper-protogenes

http://www.conjur.com.br/2011-mar-31/stf-analisar-atuacao-protogenes-queiroz

http://www.conjur.com.br/2011-jan-18/delegado-pf-dez-anos-protogenes-queiroz-dono-sete-imoveis