Reporter Glenn Greenwald to testify at Brazil spy probe

A parliamentary commission in Brazil investigating spying allegations says the journalist Glenn Greenwald will be invited to testify next week.

Mr Greenwald recently published allegations that US officials monitored communications of the Brazilian President, Dilma Rousseff.

Another recent report accused US authorities of spying on Brazil's oil company Petrobras.

The firm's president and five Brazilian ministers are also expected to testify.

Mr Greenwald's partner, David Miranda, who was held for more than eight hours by British authorities at a London airport on his way back to Brazil, is also expected to testify to the parliamentary commission.

The Rio de Janeiro-based journalist's allegations are based on documents leaked by the fugitive American former intelligence worker, Edward Snowden.

Mr Greenwald spoke about the spying allegations before the Brazilian Congress in August.

Ms Rousseff is expected to go ahead with a planned visit to Washington in October, despite fierce criticism in Brazil over the allegations of spying by US officials.

The Brazilian investigative commission wants to probe whether the alleged spying on Petrobras could have compromised the integrity of the public auction of a major oil field in October.

The Senators will invite the Minister of Communications, Paulo Bernardo, the Justice Minister, Jose Eduardo Cardozo, the Defence Minister, Celso Amorim, the Foreign Relations Minister, Luiz Figueiredo, and the Minister of the Institutional Security Office, Jose Elito, to testify.

US President Barack Obama has already vowed to investigate allegations that the National Security Agency (NSA) spied on his Mexican and Brazilian counterparts.

Mr Greenwald, a reporter for the British Guardian newspaper, alleged the NSA spied on communications between aides of Ms Rousseff and accessed all internet content that she had visited online.

Mr Greenwald was the first journalist to reveal the secret documents leaked by Mr Snowden on 6 June. Since then, he has written a series of stories about surveillance by US and UK authorities.