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Palacio del Supremo Tribunal Federal en Brasilia al atardecer, con su arquitectura modernista y la plaza vacía en primer plano
Sede del máximo tribunal brasileño en Brasilia, donde llegó el expediente sobre el senador Flávio Bolsonaro. · Imagen generada EPM

Flávio Bolsonaro case tests due process and leak safeguards in Brazil

A police file on Flávio Bolsonaro reached the Supreme Court on October 8 and went to Alexandre de Moraes.

--- The context --- A police file naming a presidential candidate becoming known on a Sunday, hours before the debate, places Flávio Bolsonaro's case on delicate ground. Before the merits comes an institutional question: whether the investigative apparatus can set the electoral calendar through leaks that nobody has explained and that the defences attribute to an electoral manoeuvre. The senator arrives with a family environment marked by heavy sentences: his father, Jair Bolsonaro, received 27 years and three months for an attempted coup, and his brother Eduardo, four years and two months for coercing judges and orchestrating sanctions from the United States. That background does not replace guarantees. --- The facts --- The Federal Police file entered the Supreme Court on October 8 and was assigned, by lottery, to Alexandre de Moraes. Its status is disputed: the defence maintains it is a newly registered file pending analysis, not an open investigation. Flávio's privileged jurisdiction explains the referral to the high court. The Police states that Willer Tomaz's data revealed a network of contacts with public agents and political figures, including members of the Public Prosecutor's Office and people from the Judiciary. Within that map, the link with the senator deserves special attention, without the account yet turning it into a closed accusation. The elements cited include parties, encounters and meetings, personal documents of Flávio in Tomaz's iCloud and travel payments for the lawmaker. An Alcazar Holding account appears in which the senator figured as master user, and one of the lawyer's accounts moved close to 130 million reais (22.9 million euros) between March and May 2025. A prior inquiry also links him to a request for funds to Daniel Vorcaro, former owner of Banco Master, dissolved after fraud and document forgery, for Dark Horse, an ode to his father. --- The positions --- Tomaz's lawyers placed the emphasis on procedure: surprise at the Sunday disclosure and rejection of the lifting of secrecy over a lawyer's communications, described as a fishing expedition to fabricate electoral scandals. They denied any irregular financial movement and denounced improper use of the police apparatus. Flávio's defence called the information erroneous and denied that he is being investigated at the Supreme Court. Presenting a pending filing as a new investigation, it argued, distorts reality and misleads the reader. --- What remains unknown --- It has not been clarified who accessed the file before its disclosure or whether anyone will examine the leak. Nor are Moraes's decision or the documents behind the travel payments known. --- Unanswered questions --- Who answers for a reserved file becoming known before the debate? Will the Supreme Court open a formal investigation or limit itself to a preliminary examination? What safeguards will govern the communications of a lawyer whose secrecy was lifted? What part of the movements is attributed to the senator, and with what backing? --- EPM analysis --- 📌 EPM Take: In EPM's view, due-process guarantees are not a privilege of candidate Bolsonaro nor a favour distributed according to political sympathies: they are the rule that protects every citizen against the State's investigative power. Scrutiny must be double, over the laundering indications and over the chain that made a file public on the eve of the debate. A democracy can investigate a candidate without turning a leak into an early verdict; when procedure is replaced by dramatic effect, justice loses legitimacy even if the suspicion proves founded.
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