Brazil: Charges filed against suspects of involvement with terrorism

Federal prosecutors have filed charges against eight people with a federal court for involvement with terrorist organizations. They were identified before the Rio 2016 Olympic Games as part of Operation Hashtag, launched in July by the Federal Police.

Accused of promoting a terrorist organization and criminal conspiracy are Alisson Luan de Oliveira, Leonid El Kadre de Melo, Oziris Moris Lundi dos Santos Azevedo, Israel Pedra Mesquita, Levi Ribeiro Fernandes de Jesus, Hortência Yoshitake, Luís Gustavo de Oliveira, and Fernando Pinheiro Cabral. Five of them are charged with luring children and adolescents to criminal activities.

The document requests the preventive detention of the eight accused. According to the prosecutors, the charged were discovered through an FBI report on Brazilians linked to terrorist cells, after which Brazilian police authorities monitored telephone calls, social media pages, and smartphone conversations.

Operation Hashtag was launched on July 21. In the first three phases, 15 people were arrested across nine Brazilian states and sent to a federal penitentiary. On September 6, the fourth stage saw two people detained for questioning and two search and seizure warrants served in São Paulo.

Translated by Fabrício Ferreira