BRASILIA: The probe into the alleged illegal espionage by the Abin intelligence agency led to searches of addresses connected to the former spy chief of far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro on Thursday by Brazil’s federal police, according to two sources.
The investigation into alleged unlawful monitoring of Bolsonaro’s opponents in the political arena, courts, and media exacerbates the former president’s legal problems. He is currently under various criminal investigations that could result in his imprisonment, and he has already been declared politically ineligible until 2030.
Congressman Alexandre Ramagem, a Bolsonaro supporter and former federal police officer who commanded Abin from 2019 to 2022, had residences associated to him examined by federal police investigators on Thursday, two sources told Reuters. According to them, Ramagem’s congressional office in Brasilia was one of the places searched.
A request for comment from Ramagem, whom Bolsonaro attempted to name to head the federal police in 2020 but the Supreme Court finally vetoed the appointment, went unanswered.
Ramagem had been preparing for a bid to become Rio de Janeiro’s mayor in recent weeks.
Seven federal police officers were suspended until the outcome of an investigation into their possible involvement in the plot, the police said in a statement. The statement also stated that a total of 21 search and seizure raids were conducted in places like Rio de Janeiro and Brasilia, the country’s capital.
