Judge Denies Brazilian Bar Association Petition to Act in Hacker Investigation

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Judge Ricardo Leite, of the 10th Federal Court in Brasília, denied on Friday, August 9th, a petition by the Federal Council of the Brazilian Bar Association (CFOAB) to act as assistant (amicus curiae) in the Operation Spoofing enquiry of the Federal Police (PF), which is investigating hacker attacks on the cell phone of Justice and Public Security Minister, Sérgio Moro, and other officials.

In the decision, the magistrate considered that there is no statutory provision permitting the OAB to “interfere in the police investigation as petitioned.” According to the OAB, the body should be involved in the case to ensure the integrity of the evidence obtained and the broad access of lawyers to the police investigation.

“The grounds claimed by the CFOAB, namely fear of the dissipation of evidence in order to thwart the effectiveness of jurisdictional provision and the guarantee of broad access by lawyers to evidence gathered during the police investigation, as a basis for the inclusion of the entity as an assistant in the investigation procedure in question, are not upheld,” said Leite.

In asking to be part of the investigation, the OAB claimed it intended to prevent evidence from being destroyed. The body additionally requested that court orders be sent to the Federal Police and to Minister Moro to avoid “compromising the integrity of the material” of the investigation.

The issue of the destruction of evidence began to be discussed last month, when, through a note, the presiding judge of the Superior Court of Justice (STJ), João Otávio de Noronha, confirmed that his cell phone had been hacked. The magistrate said he had been warned by Moro that the material obtained in investigations would be “discarded so as not to debauch anyone’s privacy.”

On Thursday, August 8th, Minister Sérgio Moro denied having instructed the Federal Police to destroy messages. In a document sent to the Federal Supreme Court (STF), the Minister of Justice said that Noronha’s position was “just a misunderstanding regarding the statement on the possible use of material obtained by the criminal invasion of cell phones, considering its illegal nature and legal provisions.”

Investigation

Also on Thursday, August 8th, Moro asked the Federal Prosecutor’s Office (PGR) to start an investigation into the OAB president, Felipe Santa Cruz, for libel and defamation offenses.

In the document forwarded to the PGR, Moro notes that the office should investigate suspected crimes of libel, slander, and defamation committed by Santa Cruz. In an interview with the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo two weeks ago, Santa Cruz said that the minister “is playing the gang leader” in the investigation of the hackers who attacked his cell phone.