Glenn Greenwald, the journalist made famous for his publication of the Edward Snowden leaks, has been accused of cyber-crimes by the Brazilian state. He’s among seven individuals who are being accused of illegally intercepting telephones and conspiracy among other things. The moves against Greenwald and the others involved comes after he published articles in The Intercept alleging corruption by Brazilian prosecutors and other officials.
As things stand right now, federal public prosecutors have proposed charges but a judge still has to give their approval to formally indict Mr. Greenwald. According to the prosecutors, Greenwald told his contacts to delete the messages they had forwarded onto him; they were sourced from the Telegram accounts of justice minister Sergio Moro and Deltan Dallagnol who's currently heading Operation Car Wash, a probe into Brazil’s biggest-ever corruption scandal.
Commenting on the matter, Glenn Greenwald said:
“Less than two months ago, the federal police, examining all the same evidence cited by the public ministry, stated explicitly that not only have I never committed any crime but that I exercised extreme caution as a journalist never even to get close to any participation. We will not be intimidated by these tyrannical attempts to silence journalists. I am working right now on new reporting and will continue to do so.”
The case against Greenwald has drawn international criticism from the likes of the Freedom of the Press Foundation, which called the incident an “outrageous violation of press freedom”, and Edward Snowden who tweeted that this is “naked retaliation” for revealing corruption in the Bolsonaro government.
Source: BBC News
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