LThe Brazilian Federal Police charged former President Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2022) on Thursday in the case in which he is being investigated for the alleged attempted misappropriation of million-dollar jewels that were given to him by Arab countries when he was still serving as head of state of Brazil.
According to the criteria of
After concluding the respective investigation, the police filed charges against twelve people, including the right-wing leader, for the crimes of appropriation of public property, money laundering and criminal association, official sources confirmed to EFE.
The lawyers for the reserve captain, who have always denied the charges and argued that the jewels remain in the possession of the Presidency, declined to comment on the outcome of the investigation.
The police report will be sent to the Supreme Court judge in charge of the investigation, Alexandre de Moraes, who will forward it to the Prosecutor’s Office to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to prosecute the accused and whether to ask the Court to open the respective trial.
Police filed criminal association charges against twelve people under investigation, including former Minister of Mines and Energy Bento Albuquerque and Bolsonaro’s then aide-de-camp Mauro Cid; embezzlement charges (appropriation of public property) against seven and money laundering charges against nine.
The case concerns a set of jewels and valuable objects that the right-wing leader received on official trips to Saudi Arabia. and other Arab countries and which he should have handed over to the state’s assets upon leaving office.
According to research, Bolsonaro sold some of these jewels through intermediaries, although some of his collaborators bought them back once the State demanded their return.
Among those charged is lawyer Frederick Wassef, the former president’s defender, who, according to the investigation, traveled to the United States to buy back the jewels after the State demanded their return in January of last year, when the progressive Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva assumed power.
View of the jewelry that was illegally imported from Saudi Arabia.
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The other investigations that Jair Bolsonaro has in Brazil
Last March, Bolsonaro was also charged with criminal association and using false data in official records, in the case in which he is being investigated for alleged fraud in obtaining a COVID-19 vaccination certificate.
In both cases, the confessions of Mauro Cid, who was arrested in May 2023 and is now on provisional release after signing an agreement with the authorities in which he agreed to confess his crimes and provide evidence against his accomplices in exchange for judicial benefits, were decisive.
A third investigation against Bolsonaro by the Federal Police, which is in an advanced phase, and the most serious, is the one that places him at the center of the coup plot that sought to annul Lula’s electoral victory in October 2022 and keep the leader in power.
The coup attempt had a final chapter on January 8, 2023, when thousands of the leader’s supporters invaded and destroyed the headquarters of the Presidency, Congress and the Supreme Court. with the idea of forcing a military intervention to overthrow the Lula government.
In addition to the criminal investigations, the former president is also in the crosshairs of the electoral justice system, which in two of the cases already stripped him of his political rights for eight years due to abuses of political and economic power in which he incurred during the campaign for the elections in which he was
defeated in 2022.
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