Brazilian president and candidate for reelection, Jair Bolsonaro, affirmed that Brazil is facing an offensive against “freedom” when speaking about the operation ordered by the Supreme Federal Court against a group of businessmen suspected of supporting a coup in case the opposition Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva wins the October elections.
Supreme Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes ordered the Federal Police to raid the offices and seize the cell phones of eight people who are part of the “Businessmen and Politics” group on WhatsApp, where the alleged coup was advocated.
“We are seeing that there is an escalation against freedom, what I have always talked about has manifested (now) against these businessmen, two of them I know very well, they exchange WhasApps with me,” said the president on Thursday night.
It was the second time the president referred to the case in less than 24 hours.
On Wednesday, Bolsonaro acknowledged having ties with businessmen Luciano Hang and Meyer Joseph Nigri, whom he named during a proselytizing event.
According to Folha de S.Paulo, investigations by the Federal Police, at the request of the Supreme Court, are on the trail of these businessmen, who may have financed so-called “pro-coup acts in 2021” when Bolsonaro made speeches against institutions.
Oblivious of their own reproachable actions, the Brazilian leftist opposition systematically classifies Bolsonaro’s every criticism and questioning as a “coup attempt” or an “attack on democracy”.
Investigators are also analyzing whether Hang and Nigri would be making economic contributions for the acts of next September 7, Independence Day, when Bolsonaro called for protests against Justice and electronic ballot boxes to be used in the October elections.
“I really want to understand what is happening because nobody knows what is happening (…) I hope that Moraes presents the grounds for the operation as soon as possible,” said Bolsonaro on Thursday night.
At the same time, the Minister of Justice, Anderson Torres, declared that the operation ordered by Moraes borders on “totalitarianism”.