Minister Alexandre de Moraes, of the STF (Supreme Federal Court), ignored a warning from the PF (Federal Police) that breaking the confidentiality of the source of an investigated journalist would violate a constitutional guarantee. In an inquiry under his report, the minister determined that information protected by such protection be added to the files.
This is the investigation into alleged persecution against STF minister Flávio Dino. Moraes ordered the seizure of cell phones and notebook belonging to Maranhão journalist Luís Pablo Conceição Almeida, who published on his blog reports about the use of an official vehicle of the Maranhão Court of Justice by Dino's family members.
In August, five months after the PF seized Luís Pablo's equipment, Moraes ordered a search and seizure operation against the journalist's informants. In other words, it allowed the secrecy of the source, an essential clause of the Federal Constitution, to be broken.
The decisions prompted criticism from journalism and law entities, as well as concerns and doubts among scholars on the subject.
After the seizure of the journalist's material —but before the search and seizure of his informants—, delegate Antônio Carlos Knoll de Carvalho, from the Federal Police, sent, on April 8, a letter to Moraes informing him that he had not included dialogues that would reveal the journalist's sources.
"From the analysis of the messages, it was possible to identify the likely supplier of information for the person being investigated, and this person was responsible for forwarding to the journalist the photographs, footage and vehicle data that were published by Luís Pablo in the reports on his blog", wrote the delegate.
"In view of the provisions of Article 5, item
In a dispatch on the same day, Moraes did not share the delegate's concerns. The minister recognized that the "Federal Constitution, by proclaiming the inviolability of source secrecy, aims to guarantee the broad and total dissemination of facts and news of public interest to society as a whole."
But he considered that that situation constituted an exception. "In the case of the case, however, there is relevant evidence that the investigated Luís Pablo Conceição Almeida committed the crime provided for in Article 147-A of the Penal Code [crime of persecution] without prejudice to other possibly related conduct, based on publications made on the internet and on social networks, attacking a minister of the Federal Supreme Court", wrote the magistrate.
"In this way", added Moraes, "it is essential to add the evidence to the case file, so that its lawfulness is regularly analyzed by the Judiciary in the context of the existence of evidence of crimes."
Therefore, the minister ordered the PF to add the evidence to the case file within 48 hours.
One of the search and seizure targets of the operation determined in August by Moraes was retired PF delegate Raimundo Cutrim, former Secretary of Security of Maranhão and who was extraordinary secretary of Legislative Affairs in the Carlos Brandão (MDB) government. He held the position until he was removed and had house arrest decreed by a July decision by Minister Flávio Dino in another investigation being carried out by the STF, into the consequences of a daylight murder in a shopping center in São Luís.
According to the PF, Cutrim obtained information about the use of the official car by Dino's family members in restricted access systems and passed it on to Luís Pablo.
Based on data obtained in the March operation against the journalist, the PF concluded that Cutrim was his informant, based on conversations between the two on WhatsApp.
Three months after the minister ordered the dialogues to be added to the files, on July 15, the same delegate Antonio Knoll asked Moraes to issue a search and seizure warrant against Cutrim.
In the same search, Moraes authorized measures against lawyer Diogo Diniz Lima, also named as an informant and who, according to the investigation, made payments of R$100,000 to Luís Pablo to pay off a property. The PF, however, informed Moraes that it was not possible to confirm that the journalist received payment for reporting against Dino.
Luís Pablo, who is a defendant in a 2017 case accused of being part of an extortion network targeting politicians and businesspeople in the state, denies having monitored Dino and his family.
Cutrim's lawyer, José Berilo de Freitas Leite Filho, called the breach of confidentiality of the journalist's source that allowed the search and seizure against his client a "legal aberration, which goes against the understanding of the STF itself." He also said that Moraes made a "grotesque mistake" by breaking an essential clause of the Constitution through an order.
When the case came to light, Moraes, besieged by criticism, stated that he defends press freedom, but that source confidentiality for journalists should not serve as a shield for criminal practices.
"Source secrecy is a constitutional guarantee enshrined by this Supreme Court, but which has never been confused and will never be confused with a protective shield for the practice of illicit activities. Source secrecy is an essential guarantee for the defense of democracy, and not a hidden instrument for criminal associations to carry out various criminal offenses with impunity."
When contacted by Folha, Moraes did not comment. The minister's office said that he had already addressed the issue.
Dino's office denied irregularities in the use of TJ-MA vehicles, stating that the STF requested the Maranhão court to provide a security apparatus for the minister and his family when they were in the state. He stated that Dino is the target of attacks and threats, that he and his relatives were monitored and followed and that the investigation showed "illegal access, by a public official, to confidential security information, which was used in clandestine and illegal monitoring".
The investigations involving Luís Pablo and Raimundo Cutrim had important developments in the midst of the electoral campaign and the war between governor Carlos Brandão's group (of whom Cutrim is an ally) and the so-called "dinistas", who worked in the Dino government (of which Brandão was deputy) and later broke with the current administration.
Some of the actions related to Maranhão in the STF are under Dino's reporting and include Brandão and his allies among those investigated. The governor complains about not having had access to the records of one of the cases and accuses Dino of using the toga to persecute opponents.
Dino stated, via his advisor, that he has been away from politics since taking office at the STF and that he has no reason to declare himself unable to judge the cases.
