The Brazilian government is preparing an appeal against the decision of the Audiencia Nacional while Judge Moraes asks for explanations from the ambassador in Brasilia.

The case for the extradition of a bolsonarista, who settled in Spain in 2023 to evade the Brazilian Supreme Court, has tarnished the fluid relationship between the two countries. The decision of the Spanish National Court to reject, last Monday, the surrender of Oswaldo Eustaquio Filho, wanted for participating in the coup conspiracy, was answered a few hours later by the judge investigating the case in Brazil, Alexandre de Moraes, with two retaliatory decisions: he suspended an extradition process requested by Spain and publicly requested explanations from the ambassador in Brasilia within five days. Meanwhile, the government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is preparing the appeal to be presented before the National Court in Madrid and the Spanish Executive remains silent.

Oswaldo Eustaquio Filho, a 46-year-old journalist, is a Bolsonaro activist who has been prosecuted by Brazil’s Supreme Court on charges of coup d’état and spreading false news. Brazil claims him for inciting followers of former president Jair Bolsonaro to perpetrate anti-democratic acts against the Supreme Court and for publicly exposing police commissioners who have investigated coup cases in order to intimidate them. In 2023, he arrived in Madrid and filed a request for asylum because he considers himself a victim of political persecution.

For Judge de Moraes, the National Court’s rejection of the request for surrender is “a lack of respect for the reciprocity” contemplated in the bilateral extradition treaty that has been in force for more than three decades. For this reason, as soon as it learned of the decision of the Spanish magistrates, it issued a public note in which it asked for explanations to the Spanish ambassador in Brasilia, Mar Fernandez-Palacios, within five days and announced that it was suspending the surrender of a Bulgarian wanted by Spain for drug trafficking named Vasil Georgiev Vasilev. The judge also ordered his release in order to keep him in house arrest with an electronic anklet.

Moraes is the most powerful judge in Brazil, the one in charge of investigating the case against former president Jair Bolsonaro and his alleged accomplices in the coup plot and most of the cases against Bolsonarism.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Justice of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s government is preparing an appeal against the rejection of the surrender. The ministry considers that the crimes charged against Eustáquio by the Brazilian Supreme Court (“obstruction of an investigation, incitement to crime, association to commit a crime, corruption of minors and disclosure of confidential data”) “are punishable both by Brazilian law and by the Spanish Criminal Code, with prison sentences exceeding one year, and are therefore subject to extradition”, according to a note released by the Brazilian Department of Justice and quoted by Efe.

The Spanish National Court refused to extradite Eustaquio Filho to Brazil on the grounds that the actions with which he is charged have “an obvious political connection and motivation” and, therefore, are excluded from the bilateral extradition treaty, which does provide for extradition in exceptional cases, such as attacks against heads of state and government, acts of terrorism or war crimes, crimes against peace or the security of mankind.

In an 11-page resolution, the Spanish magistrates of the Audiencia Nacional argue that authorizing the extradition would result in “a high risk that the situation of the defendant could be aggravated because of his political opinions and his adherence to a certain ideology”. In any case, they add that the publications in social networks against the commissioner who heads the investigations on the cases of coup exceed “the scope of the rights of freedom of expression and information”, contrary to the thesis defended by the lawyers of the pro-Bolsonar activist.