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This Wednesday, April 5, the former president of Brazil was questioned by the Brazilian authorities about the reasons why he kept the gift he received from Saudi Arabia after leaving office as head of state. The statement had no surprises and Bolsonaro answered all the questions asked by the Federal Police.
Without being seen at the beginning or end of the meeting, and without making statements to the local press, the former president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, was at the Federal Police headquarters in Brasilia to answer a questioning that lasted three hours.
For Fabio Wajngarten, a close political collaborator of Bolsonaro, the statement this Wednesday, April 5, before the Police “it passed in an absolutely calm manner, having responded to all the inquiries made by the Federal Police. It was a very good opportunity to clarify the facts.”
The deposit of Pr @jairbolsonaro I walked in an absolutely calm manner, I have answered all the inquiries made by the PF.
It was a great opportunity to clarify two facts.— Fabio Wajngarten (@fabiowoficial) April 5, 2023
The former president received the gift in 2021, from the Saudi king Salman bin Abdulaziz. One of those gift packages was exclusively for the first lady at the time, Dame Michelle Bolsonaro. Some jewels that are valued at more than 3.2 million dollars and that they were seized by customs officials in the backpack of the former president’s government assistant, when he was returning from Saudi Arabia.
In his possession, the former president had two other sets of jewelry valued at $100,000 and $75,000, which he should have delivered to the State once his term (2019-2022) ended.
In addition, a rifle and a pistol that were a gift from the United Arab Emirates were handed over to the Federal Police.
The far-right politician had stated that “receiving gifts” was “not a bad thing”. But when the news broke, a scandal broke out. His opponents launched fierce criticism that affected his reputation, considering that Bolsonaro has held an anti-corruption speech before and during his stay in power.
For his critics, Bolsonaro erred in keeping gifts that belonged to the presidential collection. In addition, they accused him of trying to evade customs duties by introducing the jewels into Brazil as if they were contraband – none of the members of the presidential delegation decided to declare the objects for their entry.
Local media reported that several officials of the Bolsonaro government tried, without success, to recover the main jewels at the Guarulhos international airport in São Paulo.
Bolsonaro, however, complied with the authorities’ call to return the packages of jewelry that were on his property. An action that was used by his defense in the audit this Wednesday to ensure that the former president complies with “the commitment to obey and respect the law.”
Bolsonaro’s return to Brazil, among multiple judicial pending
The interrogation for the investigation of the jewels occurred just six days after Bolsonaro returned to his country, after having spent three months in the United States.
Since he left power on January 1, the now former president of the largest Latin American power is no longer covered by the special jurisdiction that the Presidency granted him. He must now respond to common justice for various cases in which he is being investigated.
Bolsonaro must respond to different processes that have already been authorized by the Supreme Court and for some crimes that a parliamentary commission and the Brazilian Attorney General’s Office accuse him of.
Before arriving at the Planalto Palace, Bolsonaro was charged in two criminal proceedings for incitement to the crime of rape and for libel against a deputy from the leftist party, the Workers’ Party (PT). The former president verbally assaulted the deputy and said into the microphones: “I wouldn’t rape you because you don’t deserve to be raped.”
Bolsonaro was sentenced to pay compensation and publicly apologize, but the criminal action against him stopped in 2019, when he came to power. SHowever, he could be reactivated now and even be sentenced to a detention of three to six months.
Another of the crimes for which he is accused is for disclosing false information about the Covid-19 vaccine.
In October 2021, the then president read false news in a live broadcast on social networks. In the text, Bolsonaro read that people vaccinated in the United Kingdom “were developing acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS)”, something that the international health authorities completely denied and pointed out as “false”.
Regarding this event, the Federal Police charged Bolsonaro with the crime of public incitement to commit a crime, since it motivated people to disobey health regulations that were mandatory at that time.
In February of this year, a Federal Police delegate made another accusation against Bolsonaro. According to the official, the former president committed the crime of violation of functional secrecy by having propitiated a fraudulent narrative about the country’s electoral process.
“Jair Bolsonaro contributes to comments that incite fraud without evidence or indications, it creates a doubtful scenario about the voting system in Brazil,” the official explained before the Supreme Court. However, the Attorney General’s Office archived the process.
And while more accusations accumulate in the Brazilian courts against the ex-president, unprotected from presidential coverage, the most recent process is the one that presumes the authorship of Bolsonaro in the assault on the headquarters of the three powers of the State perpetrated on January 8 of this year by thousands of his followers. One that left images of the Brazilian capital reminiscent of the takeover of the US Capitol. On that day, the Bolsonaristas tried to force a coup against the democratically elected government of Luiz Inácio ‘Lula’ Da Silva.
With AP, EFE and local media.
