Brazil's President Michel Temer has become embroiled in another controversy, just a day after he was acquitted of financial irregularities in the 2014 election campaign.
The Brazilian Supreme Federal Court has urged a thorough investigation into reports that the country's secret security service, known as Abin, allegedly spied on the judge in charge of cases resulting from corruption probes, namely Operation Car Wash investigating dozens of politicians for bribery linked to the state-run oil company Petrobras.
In February, top Justice Edson Fachin was picked to head the probe into the massive corruption ring involving some of Brazil's top business executives and politicians. Supreme Court chief Carmen Lucia said in a statement on Saturday that, if proved accurate, such reports show an inadmissible meddling into the court and an attack against democratic liberties in Latin America's biggest country.
She described the pressure against judges as a practice "common in dictatorships" and added that the court rejects "unconstitutional and immoral stalking against any citizen and even more against one of its members, more so if it is intended to limit justice."
Lucia warned that there could be "legal, political and institutional consequences" if the operation was "proven at any time."
Brazil's Veja magazine reported late on Friday that Abin might have allegedly been used to spy on Fachin. Temer's office denied the Veja report, saying the Abin "acts in accordance with the purpose for which it has been created."
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Lucia's remarks add to tension between the executive and judiciary branches of power, which gained intensity in the wake of Fachin's decision to validate a plea deal involving Temer in a corruption probe.
Prosecutors allege that Temer worked to obstruct justice and condoned efforts to pay for the silence of a potential witness, jailed speaker of the lower house of Congress, Eduardo Cunha.
Responding earlier to questions on Globo TV before the latest allegations emerged, Temer said he was feeling very calm and serene after the country's top electoral court acquitted him and his predecessor on charges of illegally financing their successful 2014 re-election campaign. The case had the potential to unseat Temer as president.
Four of the seven members of the Superior Electoral Tribunal rejected the charges against him and the former President Dilma Rousseff on Friday.
Temer was Rouseff's running mate in her 2014 re-election campaign. After breaking a longstanding alliance with her party, Temer replaced her when she was impeached last year in a process widely condemned as a parliamentary coup.