Alessandra Bastos
Reporter - Agência Brasil

Brasília - Violation of official propriety is a crime defined in Article 325 of the Penal Code. It consists of "disclosing or facilitating the revelation of a fact of which one has knowledge by virtue of the office one occupies and which should remain confidential."

According to the code, the penalty is a six-month to two-year dentention or a fine, if the fact does not constitute a more serious crime. Law 9.983/2000 says that if the act causes harm to public administration or any individual, the penalty is imprisonment for two to six years and a fine.

Two situations are considered violations of official propriety. The first is improper use of privileged information. The other is to provide someone's password, allowing or facilitating access by non-authorized people to government information systems or data banks.

Yesterday (27), the president of the Federal Savings Bank, Jorge Mattoso, assumed responsibility for having violated the banking privacy of the caretaker, Francenildo Santos Costa. In a note, however, he affirmed that he was not the one who released the bank statement to the press. Mattoso was arraigned for the crime of violation of official propriety.

Translation: David Silberstein