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🇦🇷 Argentina /Crime & Justice

Amid Brazil Supreme Court Conflict, Justice Suspends Lula’s Federal Police Chief

From La Nación · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources In the courts
  • Supreme Court Justice André Mendonça ordered the preventive suspension of Federal Police Director-General Andrei Rodrigues, alleging that police intelligence had systematically monitored him.
  • The Supreme Court’s Second Panel upheld the measure by a three-to-five majority, and the suspension also covers Police Intelligence Director Leandro Almada da Costa.
  • The dispute is linked to the Banco Master investigation, which has exposed contacts between the bank’s founder and political and official figures.

Brazil’s Supreme Court has deepened its internal confrontation after Justice André Mendonça ordered the preventive suspension of Federal Police Director-General Andrei Rodrigues, appointed by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Mendonça described the alleged conduct as “extremely serious.” He said intelligence officials from the Federal Police had subjected him to systematic monitoring and targeted information gathering for more than a month. The reports examined his rulings and the work of police investigators as though they formed part of an internal disciplinary inquiry.

extremely serious

· André MendonçaThe justice’s description of the alleged monitoring by Federal Police intelligence.

“This was unlawful monitoring of a Supreme Court justice of the country, which by itself reveals the gravity of the situation,” Mendonça wrote. He said Rodrigues had “full knowledge” of the material. The order also applies to Leandro Almada da Costa, the Federal Police intelligence director.

systematic monitoring

· André MendonçaMendonça’s allegation that he had been monitored by intelligence officials for more than a month.

Hours later, the Supreme Court’s Second Panel formed a majority to keep the measure in place. Justice Gilmar Mendes requested more time to review the case, while Luiz Fux and Nunes Marques announced votes supporting the rapporteur. The three votes represented a majority of the panel’s five members.

Mendonça, who was nominated to the court by former president Jair Bolsonaro in 2021, sits at the center of a broader fight over the Banco Master case. The bank attracted customers with certificates of deposit offering returns far above market rates and backed by the fund that protects savings. Investigators allege that it financed itself by selling other banks loan portfolios that largely did not exist.

targeted information gathering

· André MendonçaThe justice’s description of how police intelligence allegedly collected information about him.

The Central Bank liquidated Banco Master in November, and police arrested its founder, Daniel Vorcaro, as he tried to leave the country on a private plane. A police report later examined a seized phone and found messages Vorcaro sent to a contact saved as “Alexandre de Moraes BRASILIA,” asking him to stop the bank’s liquidation and later asking whether he needed to be outside the country the following Monday. Police recovered no replies. The article also says the number was saved in December 2023, one month before a law firm belonging to Justice Alexandre de Moraes’s wife signed a three-year contract with Banco Master worth 131 million reais, or about $25 million.

This was unlawful monitoring of a Supreme Court justice of the country, which by itself reveals the gravity of the situation

· André MendonçaMendonça’s written explanation for the suspension order.
About this summary

Originally published by La Nación in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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