Brazil court crisis deepens as justice orders federal police chief suspended

By Rodrigo Viga Gaier and Ricardo Brito

RIO DE JANEIRO/BRASILIA, Sept 8 (Reuters) – Brazil’s Supreme Court crisis deepened on Tuesday as Justice Andre Mendonca ordered the suspension of federal police chief Andrei Rodrigues, a decision backed by the majority of a five-member court panel but challenged by the government.

The suspension represents a new chapter in a conflict that has engulfed the top court, pitting Mendonca against fellow Justice Alexandre de Moraes, and comes as the country heads into a presidential election next month.

Moraes is a powerful figure in Brazil. His pursuit of former President Jair Bolsonaro and allies over a coup plot to reverse Bolsonaro’s 2022 election loss led to the former president’s conviction last year.

Right-wing opposition leaders have sought to tie leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to Moraes, while using the court crisis to bolster the presidential campaign of Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, the former president’s eldest son.

Recent polls indicated Lula and Flavio Bolsonaro are running neck and neck. Opposition supporters took to the streets on Independence Day on Monday to protest against Lula and Moraes and voice support for Mendonca, a Bolsonaro appointee.

COURT CRISIS

Mendonca last week disclosed a report raising questions about alleged contact between Moraes and a banker accused of leading a multibillion-dollar fraud scheme, prompting calls for an investigation of the justice.

Moraes responded by seeking an investigation into Mendonca for alleged abuse of authority, citing federal police intelligence reports that Mendonca has now challenged as illegal.

Mendonca ordered the preventive suspension of Rodrigues, the director-general of the Federal Police, and Leandro Almada, the agency’s intelligence chief, over their alleged involvement in the production of the intelligence reports.

The Federal Police did not respond to a request for comment.

A majority of the five-member Supreme Court panel reviewing the case backed Mendonca’s decision, with Justices Kassio Nunes Marques, another Bolsonaro appointee, and Luiz Fux joining him.

A top Lula aide criticized Mendonca’s move as unwarranted judicial overreach.

“Investigating possible evidence of crimes is correct. But this measure smells electoral to me. That cannot happen,” Institutional Relations Minister Jose Guimaraes said on social media.

GOVERNMENT APPEALS

Later on Tuesday, Lula’s government said in a statement it had appealed the decision before Supreme Court President Edson Fachin.

The Solicitor General’s Office argued that suspending the police chief violates powers constitutionally reserved for the president, while compromising the police’s functioning and creating a risk of institutional disarray, the government said in its statement.

In the ruling seen by Reuters, Mendonca said the measure was necessary to preserve the independence of the judiciary and ensure that justices, the solicitor general and police officials could perform their duties free from “illegal constraints.”

He said the “exceptional gravity and illegality” surrounding the intelligence reports allegedly involving Rodrigues required immediate action as judicial and police functions risked continuing to be “vilified.”

(Reporting by Rodrigo Viga Gaier in Rio de Janeiro and Ricardo Brito and Lisandra Paraguassu in Brasilia; Writing by Gabriel Araujo and Andre Romani; Editing by Andrew Heavens, Brendan O’Boyle, Andrea Ricci and Christopher Cushing)