Minister Alexandre de Moraes, of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), denied a request presented by senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ) to expand the investigation into alleged slander against President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT).
In the decision, signed this Tuesday (16), Moraes stated that it is up to the Federal Police to conduct the investigation and that the person being investigated cannot define the direction of the investigation.
The minister’s statement comes after the senator’s defense attempted to obtain a series of investigative measures that had already been refused by the Federal Police themselves. According to Moraes, accepting the requests would represent undue interference in police activity.
“It is not up to the person being investigated to intend to guide the investigative activity”, wrote the minister when rejecting the request.
What is being investigated
The investigation was opened in April, following a request from the Federal Police with a favorable opinion from the Attorney General’s Office (PGR). The investigation focuses on a publication made by Flávio Bolsonaro on the social network X, in January this year.
In the message, the senator associated images of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro with Lula and wrote that the PT member would be denounced, linking his name to crimes such as international drug and weapons trafficking, money laundering, support for terrorist groups and electoral fraud.
The Federal Police investigates the authorship of the publication, its authenticity and the possible existence of fraud, that is, the deliberate intention of attributing criminal acts to the President of the Republic.
PF had already denied
Before appealing to the Supreme Court, Flávio’s defense presented the same requests directly to the Federal Police.
The investigators rejected part of the requests because they considered that they would not contribute to clarifying the facts and could delay the progress of the investigation.
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In a statement sent to the STF, the corporation stated that some of the requests were “innocuous in relation to the outcome of the investigation” and could even harm the investigation.
The PF also rejected a request to hear the senator himself during this phase of the investigation. According to the investigators, the fact investigated is sufficiently delimited and does not depend on additional clarifications from the parliamentarian to move forward.
Conducting the investigation
When analyzing the case, Moraes reinforced that the purpose of the criminal investigation is to gather elements so that the Public Ministry can evaluate the possible adoption of future legal measures.
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According to the minister, it is exclusively up to the bodies responsible for criminal prosecution to define what steps are necessary to clarify the facts.
With the decision, the investigation continues normally with the Federal Police, which received from the STF a period of 60 days to carry out the steps considered relevant and forward its conclusions to the Public Ministry.
