Brazilian Facebook director released after 24 hours

Diego Dzodan, vice president of Facebook Latin America, was released on Wednesday after spending about 24 hours in jail. The CEO was arrested because a court wants information from WhatsApp, which the company says it cannot provide.

A judge has invalidated a lower court’s decision to arrest Dzodan, writes BBC Brasil. The CEO was arrested on suspicion of obstructing a criminal investigation, which carries a sentence of three to eight years. According to the judge, Dzodan did not act with intent to obstruct the investigation and the arrest is therefore illegal.

A court in Brazil has been trying for some time to force WhatsApp to release conversations from an alleged drug gang. WhatsApp says it can’t because it doesn’t store chats on its servers. The court imposed fines and decided, when that did not work, to arrest Facebook CEO Dzodan on Tuesday. WhatsApp itself does not have an office in Brazil, but is owned by Facebook.