The judge guarantees the newspaper’s access to Bolsonaro’s evidence for Covid-19

The holder of political power is the people (Article 1, sole paragraph, of CF / 88), so that state agencies and political agents must clarify matters of national interest relevant to directors.

Based on this understanding, the judge Ana Lucia Petri Betto, from the XIV Federal Civil Court of São Paulo, accepted the newspaper’s request The state of São Paulo and determined that the media has access to the Covid-19 tests that President Jair Bolsonaro underwent.

The magistrate stipulated a 48-hour period for the Union to provide “reports of all examinations” conducted by the President of the Republic to identify infection with the new coronavirus.

To support the request, the newspaper recalled that the president included, among From March 7 to 10, 2020, a retinue of state ministers, government secretaries, parliamentarians and businessmen and maintains that 23 of these people hired Covid-19. The lawsuit also recalls that, despite the president’s claims that his reviews were negative, he never produced any documents to prove two statements.

In defense of the president, the Union argued that the initial petition should be dismissed due to the lack of attribution of value to the cause and that the plaintiff would try to defend the rights of third parties, without any procedural interest. Finally, the defendant also argues that the request would not have passive legitimacy, since it could not be forced to show a document related to a third person.

In analyzing the matter, the magistrate listed the justifications and precedents to ignore the Union’s arguments and accepted the newspaper’s request. He recalled that “at the present time of a pandemic that is affecting not only Brazil, but the entire world, the foundations of the Republic cannot be neglected, especially with regard to the duties of information and transparency.”

The magistrate also cited precedents from the Supreme Federal Court and recalled that “those in power have the right to be informed about the actual state of health of the elected representative.” Finally, the judge set a fine of R $ 5,000 for each day of unjustified failure to comply with the decision.

Click here to read the decision.
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