BRAZIL’S federal police have accused former president Jair Bolsonaro and 35 others evening of involvement in a sprawling scheme that used the country’s intelligence agency to spy on members of the judiciary, politicians and journalists.

The seal on the 1,125-page document, which adds to the far-right leader’s woes, was lifted by the country’s Supreme Court on Wednesday.

The federal police document said Mr Bolsonaro was both aware of the scheme and its main beneficiary.

Investigator Daniel Carvalho Brasil Nascimento, who chairs the probe, named one of the former president’s sons, Rio de Janeiro councillor Carlos Bolsonaro, as a key plot member.

The police investigation focuses on a so-called parallel structure in Brazil’s intelligence agency.

Mr Bolsonaro and Carlos “were responsible for the definitions of the criminal organisation’s strategic guidelines, for choosing the targets of the clandestine actions (against opponents, institutions, the electoral system) so they would politically gain from these operations,” the federal police said.

“They are the decision centre and the main recipients of illicit advantages.”

Mr Bolsonaro, who governed between 2019 and 2022 and is already barred by Brazil’s electoral court from running in next year’s elections, is standing on trial over allegations that he attempted a coup to stay in office despite his 2022 defeat to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

He denies any wrongdoing and claims he is being politically persecuted.