Greenwald calls Brazil’s Bolsonaro a ‘wannabe dictator’ after threats of ‘jail’ for explosive leaks

  28 July 2019    Read: 1905
Greenwald calls Brazil’s Bolsonaro a ‘wannabe dictator’ after threats of ‘jail’ for explosive leaks

The award-winning journalist has called Brazilian President a ‘wannabe dictator’ after Jair Bolsonaro threatened him with a jail term amid a scandal surrounding the nation’s justice minister sparked by The Intercept reports. 

Amid rumors that Glenn Greenwald could face deportation under a new government decree, Bolsonaro stated  that “he will not be kicked out” – but instead might “do jail time in Brazil.” The decree, issued by Justice Minister Sergio Moro, allows summary expulsion of people accused of unconstitutional acts or deemed a danger to the “security of Brazil.”

Bolsonaro said nothing about the charges that could land the reporter in prison, though. Instead, he attacked Greenwald’s choice of life partner, claiming that the journalist might have engaged in a relationship with a Brazilian citizen only to avoid deportation.

“Trickster, trickster, to avoid such a problem [of deportation], he marries another trickster and adopts a child in Brazil,”Bolsonaro said. “That is the problem we have. He will not leave.”

Greenwald immediately hit back, calling the president a “wannabe dictator” and saying that he “has no power” to order arrests and deportations, especially since authorities have “nothing” incriminating against him. Greenwald, who married in 2005 and lives with his Brazilian husband and two adopted children in Rio de Janeiro, also mocked Bolsonaro’s remark about his 'prophetic' matrimonial plans.

The co-founder of the Intercept has been under pressure ever since the Intercept published a series of bombshell reports targeting the very same minister Moro – a former judge and a close ally of Bolsonaro. Based on a trove of leaked communication logs, the reports alleged that as part of a high-profile anti-corruption probe known as the Operation Car Wash, Moro in fact actively worked together with a group of Brazilian prosecutors to undermine Brazil’s leftist Workers’ Party and prevent former president Lula de Silva from returning to power, clearing the way for Bolsonaro’s eventual victory last year.

The leaks triggered a scandal that dominated headlines in Brazil for weeks and sparked heated debates in the parliament. Since then, Greenwald says his family received multiple “grotesque” threats of violence, while authorities reportedly launched an investigation against the journalist.

 

RT


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