Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro did not appear this Friday to testify before the police and failed to comply with the judge's order, which is investigating him for disseminating secret documents to discredit the electoral system.
Judicial sources informed the Efe news agency that Bolsonaro filed an appeal to the Supreme Court against the order issued by Judge Alexandre de Moraes, announced without prior consultation with the other members of the court.
The Supreme Court continues in recess and will resume its activities next Tuesday, from that moment on it will be possible to analyze the situation and, eventually, take the president's appeal to the plenary session, according to the same sources.
The investigations against Bolsonaro
The investigation to which Bolsonaro is the subject is part of a process on false news that included a harsh campaign that he maintained against the electronic voting system that Brazil adopted in 1996, which since then has not been the subject of a single complaint of fraud, but that according to the president encourages cheating, reported the Efe agency.
The far-right leader has never presented a shred of evidence for his claims, but last August he released secret Federal Police reports on an attempted cyberattack in the 2018 elections, despite it having already been proven that it had not affected the vote in which he was elected president.
Magistrate Alexandre de Moraes then opened another investigation front, in this case for the publication of secret reports, and on November 29 he asked Bolsonaro to agree on where he would give a statement.
The president, however, has since ignored this and other similar requests, so the magistrate ordered him to "appear personally" at the headquarters of the Federal Police to give a statement at "14.00:XNUMX p.m." this Friday.
In the document, addressed to Bolsonaro on Thursday afternoon, De Moraes stressed that "in a Republic, the person under investigation, whoever he or she may be, is normally subject to the scope of the coercive powers of the State necessary" to "ensure the reliability" of the legal process, which includes "being summoned for questioning."
Before the time set for his statement to the Police, Bolsonaro participated in a public event in which he complained about the "interference" of other powers of the Nation in the Executive.
Without making direct reference to the court order, he said he would continue to confront such "interferences," but "always within the framework of the Constitution."
