Brazilian police investigate Carlos Bolsonaro, son of the former president, in the case of illegal espionage

Week after week the police and judicial siege tightens around the former president of Brazil Jair Bolsonaro, who lost power and immunity 13 months ago.

The Federal Police are investigating his son Carlos, 41, a councilor in Rio de Janeiro, in a case involving illegal espionage perpetrated by the Brazilian secret service during his father's term, as confirmed by Reuters on Monday.

Investigators have orders to search his house and official office;

They suspect that the mayor and digital strategist of the Bolsonaro clan was one of the recipients of the information collected without judicial authorization.

The patriarch and leader of the Brazilian right considered it so crucial to achieving the unexpected victory, in 2018, that Carlos was the only one of the five children who accompanied him in the Rolls Royce on the day of the inauguration.

Among the registered residences, a summer chalet where Bolsonaro Sr. spends his holidays, in Angra do Rei, near Rio.

He and his children spent Sunday there together.

When the police arrived this morning, none of them were in the house, they had gone out fishing together at dawn, according to the family's lawyer.

This Monday's police operation is a continuation of the one deployed last week.

So the main target was Alexandre Ramagem, who was the head of the Brazilian Intelligence Agency (ABIN) under Bolsonaro.

Police commissioner before entering politics, Ramallo is now a deputy and close to Carlos Bolsonaro.

The main accusation in the case is that the secret service used

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to infect phones and monitor some 30,000 people, including public authorities and ordinary citizens considered political adversaries by the then far-right president and Bolsonarism. in general.

The police have explained, in a note released this morning, that the eight search warrants now focus on "advancing the political core, identifying the main recipients and beneficiaries of the information illegally produced within the ABIN."

The statement does not mention Bolsonaro Jr. or any of the other suspects.

Carlos has been at the center of another case investigated by the Supreme Court about the so-called Cabinet of Hate for years.

While his father was head of state, the councilor had an office in the presidential palace where he served as a kind of propaganda minister.

The police suspect that he spread false information and disinformation from there to attack his father's rivals and anyone considered uncomfortable and traitor by Bolsonarism.

He has always declared himself innocent.

The accusations against Carlos, Bolsonaro's second son, come just hours after the latter and his three political sons, Senator Flávio, Councilor Carlos and Deputy Eduardo, starred in a live broadcast on YouTube this Sunday night that was the starting signal for the municipal elections in October.

The Bolsonaros are recruiting followers to prepare in

courses to run in the elections, which will be a fight between President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Bolsonaro, who remains head of the opposition although the judges have disqualified him from being electoral candidate until 2030.

Deputies close to the Bolsonaros have come out to defend the leader's second son.

They accuse the police of pursuing the Bolsonaros in an attempt to silence them.

The former president's closest circle is the subject of police and judicial interest on different fronts.

Two other sons of Bolsonaro, Senator Flávio, and Renan, who is not a politician, were identified by investigators in the first phase of this operation.

The first, for using the secret service to prepare his defense in a court case, the second, for using it to interfere in an investigation.

In addition, a former Minister of Justice and the soldier who for four years was his shadow as personal secretary are under house arrest for the assault on the three powers, in Brasilia.

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