The long-running saga of Brazil's fake news inquiry got a new chapter on Friday (Oct 9). Edson Fachin, president of the Supreme Federal Court (STF), denied Justice Luiz Fux immediate full access to the investigation's files and signaled that the case, opened in 2019, is heading toward a definitive closure.

In his ruling, Fachin said 104 procedures tied to the inquiry, including petitions and preliminary investigations, are still pending review by the court's presidency. Only after that step, he said, will the case be formally archived and released to the public. It will then fall to the Prosecutor-General's Office (PGR) to decide on possible charges or dismissal, G1 reported.

On Thursday (Oct 8), Fux had given the court's technical staff 48 hours to grant his office access to sealed investigations touching former president Jair Bolsonaro and his allies. His list covered the fake news inquiry, the digital militias probe, the investigations behind the so-called coup plot and the forged vaccination cards case. According to the STF presidency, three of those four proceedings are already public. The fake news inquiry is the exception.

Seven years old and under new management

The inquiry turned seven in March and has been controversial from day one, Folha de S.Paulo notes. Fachin pulled the case from Justice Alexandre de Moraes in early September, in the wake of the Banco Master crisis that fueled criticism of the court's justices, and took charge of it himself.

Fux's request came from a lawsuit filed by the PP party, which backs Senator Flavio Bolsonaro's presidential bid, in April 2024. The case had been stalled since then. The party challenges Moraes' decision to keep the fact-finding that led to Operation Tempus Veritatis, the probe into an alleged coup attempt under Bolsonaro, sealed and separate, and questions Moraes' appointment as rapporteur.

Fux argued that part of the material has already lost its seal and reached defense lawyers:

"If the defense has access to the documented evidence, then all the more so does the justice of this court who must rule on the constitutionality of the procedure. The court cannot know less than the parties about what the court does."

Fux stressed he was not pre-judging the merits. Fachin, for his part, replied that "the review of the proceedings remains underway" and that information will be released as decisions are made, "always within the strict limits of legal secrecy".

For anyone who wants to follow the next episodes of this Brasilia drama, the STF's plenary sessions are broadcast live on TV Justica and on the court's YouTube channel.