Supreme Court Justice Moraes Extends Fake News Inquiry for Six Months

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Federal Supreme Court (STF) Justice Alexandre de Moraes on Wednesday, July 1st, extended the inquiry into fake news, which is investigating the spread of false content and threats to court justices on the Internet, for another six months.

According to the decision, the deadline will start on July 15th, when the prior deadline would have ended. Last month, the full STF confirmed the legal validity of the inquiry, which has already affected politicians, entrepreneurs, and bloggers supporting President Jair Bolsonaro. All the accused deny wrongdoing.

The investigation was launched just over a year ago, in March 2019, based on the STF’s internal rules of procedure. The initiative came from Supreme Court Chief Justice Dias Toffoli who assigned heading the inquiry to Justice Alexandre de Moraes.

Since then, at least 18 search and seizure warrants, 12 hearings of witnesses or suspects, and two restrictive measures have been enforced.

Search and seizure warrants

The main investigative front was triggered on May 27th, when the Federal Police served search and seizure warrants on Bolsonaro‘s allies, including former federal deputy and PTB president Roberto Jefferson and the Havan department store owner Luciano Hang, as well as bloggers.

Moraes also ruled that six federal deputies allied to the Planalto should provide depositions: Bia Kicis (PSL-DF), Carla Zambelli (PSL-SP), Daniel Silveira (PSL-RJ), Filipe Barros (PSL-PR), Junio Amaral (PSL-MG) and Luiz Phillipe de Orleans e Bragança (PSL-SP).

At the time, the justice stressed that the evidence points to a “real possibility” of criminal association involving the so-called “hate cabinet”. According to him, the group spreads messages of “hatred, subversion, and encouragement to breach democratic institutional normality”.

In the order, Moraes explained that the hate cabinet was the name given by legislators interviewed in the investigation to the group spreading false information and defamation on the internet.

“The evidence gathered and the technical reports submitted in the inquiry pointed to the presence of a criminal association dedicated to the spread of fake news, insulting attacks on several people, officials, and institutions, including the Supreme Court, with blatant hate content, subversion of order and encouragement to breach institutional and democratic normality,” wrote the justice.

The inquiry identified insults and attacks that typify crimes against the justices’ honor, physical integrity and life, as well as crimes against the National Security Law perpetrated against the Judiciary.

Since the Supreme Court inquiry began, 72 investigations have been referred to state and federal lower courts, and have become police inquiries.

Part of these investigations intersect with another inquiry that investigated the financing of antidemocratic rallies, and was launched in the STF at the behest of the Prosecutor General (PGR).

Source: G1