First they come for the journalists
Glenn Greenwald Charged With
Cybercrimes in Brazil
Mr.
Greenwald is accused of being part of a
“criminal organization” that hacked into
the cellphones of prosecutors and public
officials.
By Ernesto Londoño
January
21, 2020 "Information
Clearing House" - RIO DE
JANEIRO — Federal prosecutors in Brazil
on Tuesday charged the American
journalist
Glenn Greenwald with cybercrimes for
his role in the spreading of cellphone
messages that have embarrassed
prosecutors and tarnished the image of
an anti-corruption task force.
In a
criminal complaint made public on
Tuesday, prosecutors in the capital,
Brasília, accused Mr. Greenwald of being
part of a “criminal organization” that
hacked into the cellphones of several
prosecutors and other public officials
last year.
Mr.
Greenwald, an
ardent critic of Brazil’s far right
president, Jair Bolsonaro, is a deeply
polarizing figure in Brazil’s bitter
political divide. This perception was
fueled when the organization he
co-founded, The Intercept Brasil,
published articles last year based on
the leaked cellphone messages that
raised questions about the integrity
and the motives of key members of
Brazil’s justice system.
The
articles cast doubt on the impartiality
of a former judge, Sérgio Moro, and of
some of the prosecutors who worked on a
corruption investigation that landed
several powerful political and business
figures in prison. Among them was a
former president, a popular leftist
whose conviction paved the way for
Brazil’s radical rightward shift and the
election of Mr. Bolsonaro. Mr. Moro
is now Mr. Bolsonaro’s minister of
justice.
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In a statement, Mr.
Greenwald called the charges “an obvious attempt to
attack a free press in retaliation for the
revelations we reported about Minister Moro and the
Bolsonaro government.”
In a 95-page criminal
complaint, prosecutors say that The Intercept Brasil,
the news organization Mr. Greenwald co-founded, did
more than merely receive the hacked messages and
oversee the publication of
newsworthy information.
Citing intercepted
messages between Mr. Greenwald and the hackers,
prosecutors say the journalist played a “clear role
in facilitating the commission of a crime.”
For instance,
prosecutors contend that Mr. Greenwald encouraged
the hackers to delete archives that had already been
shared with The Intercept Brasil, in order to cover
their tracks.
Prosecutors also say
that Mr. Greenwald was communicating with the
hackers while they were actively monitoring private
chats on Telegram, a messaging app.
Mr. Greenwald moved
to Brazil in 2005 after meeting David Miranda, a
Brazilian man he later married and who became a
federal congressman last year.
Mr. Greenwald first
became widely known for his role in the release of
classified national security documents leaked by the
former National Security Agency contractor Edward
Snowden in 2013. He co-founded The Intercept Brasil
in 2016.
Mr. Greenwald
expressed concern last year that the authorities
might charge him criminally as a reprisal for The
Intercept Brasil’s reporting based on the leaked
messages.
Mr. Greenwald’s
concerns were partly based on reports that federal
officials were investigating his finances.
Those reports led a
Supreme Court justice, Gilmar Mendes, to issue an
extraordinary order barring the federal police from
investigating Mr. Greenwald’s role in the
dissemination of the hacked messages.
Prosecutors on
Tuesday said they abided by that order until they
found audio messages which, they argued, implicated
Mr. Greenwald in criminal activity.
This article was
originally published by "NYT"
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