Brazil’s PGR advises STF of 25 preliminary investigations against Bolsonaro in 1 year

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Federal Prosecutor General Augusto Aras told the Federal Supreme Court (STF) on Thursday, December 9, that he has opened 25 preliminary investigations into President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) over the past 12 months.

The opinion was forwarded in a request by opposition deputies to investigate Bolsonaro’s conduct in his July 29 live stream, in which he attacked the electoral system.

According to Aras, in the last few months alone, 25 notifications were filed in the PGR on Bolsonaro, describing preliminary investigations opened at the Prosecutor General’s Office to assess whether there is enough evidence in the case to justify the opening of a formal investigation before the STF.

Critics of Aras’ management have accused the PGR of using the instrument as a ploy to prevent opening inquiries into the President, claiming that the cases are being internally reviewed by the PGR, where they may be dismissed without being submitted to the Supreme Court.

Justice Cármen Lúcia in November ordered Aras to submit information on the preliminary investigation into the July 29 live stream incident. At the time, the magistrate said that any action by the PGR that excludes the Supreme Court’s oversight has no legal backing.

In response, Aras said that the opening of preliminary proceedings in the PGR aims to prevent the STF from being overwhelmed with groundless or invalid requests for investigation.

“These complaints of undeniably expressive volume are being processed as notifications of fact in the Prosecutor General’s Office in order to act as a kind of purifier and screen for the Constitutional Court, so as not to overburden the already cumbersome investigative structure of the Supreme Court, thereby preventing hundreds of complaints, some invalid, inconsistent and/or unfounded, from directly and unnecessarily reaching the Supreme Court’s area of judicial supervision,” Aras said.

Aras did not detail the progress of the 25 notifications of fact involving Bolsonaro, including the July 29 live stream. The PGR states only that they are “pending the completion of internal procedures that, as soon as they occur, will be forwarded to the Supreme Court.”

The Prosecutor General further states that there is at least one proceeding to investigate alleged anticipated electoral campaigning, abuse of political power, and personal promotion of Bolsonaro, when he used TV Brasil to rebroadcast his July live stream.

Another proceeding cited by the PGR concerns the President’s statements on the possibility of fraud in the Brazilian electoral system. According to Aras, both cases are at the PGR’s Extrajudicial Electoral Legal Counsel.

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