Brasilia, 26 March 2025 – Transparency International – Brazil expresses its support for the decision of the Supreme Court (STF) that decided that Jair Bolsonaro and other civil and military leaders in the conspiracy against Brazilian democracy will face trial. The strict and impartial accountability of all those involved is essential to
strengthen the rule of law and prevent new attacks on democratic institutions.
Jair Bolsonaro hijacked the anti-corruption discourse to get elected president, but since his first day in office, he acted relentlessly to ensure impunity for his own corruption and that of his family, weakening and curbing the independence of control institutions. In doing so, he corrupted the system of checks and balances in Brazilian democracy, undermining its three pillars of legal, political, and social controls. Legal control was neutralized by the appointment of a servile Prosecutor General, political control was nullified by secret budgetary allocations for members of Parliament, and social control was weakened by the abusive use of secrecy, the elimination of spaces for social participation, and attacks on the press and organized civil society. Transparency International – Brazil documented and reported this legal and institutional dismantling both nationally and internationally throughout Bolsonaro’s government1.
In this context of deinstitutionalization, the coup conspiracy that the country now knows occurred among authorities within former President Bolsonaro’s circle, in collusion with private financiers, becomes even more dangerous. Civil society, institutions, and the international community eliminated the conditions for the coup to
succeed, but the conspirators must be held accountable, without amnesty.
At the same time, we express concern about the recurrent violations of fundamental rights and guarantees observed in various processes related to anti-democratic actions, especially within the scope of the Supreme Court.
Such violations, including the suppression of legal instances and the principles of double degree of jurisdiction and natural judge, restrictions on the work of lawyers, abusive and legally unfounded pretrial detentions, and other severe failures in due process, weaken the legitimacy of the decisions and may compromise the advancement of justice and the necessary process of strengthening Brazilian democracy.
Transparency International – Brazil has denounced the so-called “fake news inquiry”2 since its start in 2019. This procedure was initiated ex officio by then- President of the STF, Justice Dias Toffoli, who also appointed Justice Alexandre de Moraes as the rapporteur without a draw. One of the first actions of this inquiry, which was intended to investigate fake news and threats to the Supreme Court and its judges, was to halt a Federal Revenue audit involving the wives of Justices Dias Toffoli and Gilmar Mendes, in addition to investigating the auditors
Transparency International – Brazil warned that the generic scope of the inquiry would give unlimited reach to the procedure, and its recurring extensions would perpetuate it. This is exactly what is observed today, with subsequent procedures that nourish unlimited and personalized powers and weaken the Brazilian constitutional court when it most needs its full legitimacy.
We demand that Brazilian institutions act with independence, impartiality, and strict respect for constitutional principles. The processes of holding the conspirators accountable should also aim at normalizing the Brazilian democratic regime.
The fight against corruption is a fight for rights—and it only thrives in democracy
