Jair Bolsonaro and his wife Michelle will appear before the police this Thursday to respond to an alleged diversion of jewelry received as official gifts when he was president of Brazil, an investigation that could land him in jail.
(You can read: A son of Jair Bolsonaro, target of police operation for money laundering)
Declared ineligible for eight years in June for misinforming about the electoral system, the former president will give a statement for the fifth time since he left the presidency on December 31.
(Also: Brasilia police leadership arrested for allowing coup attempt in January)
The right-winger has already been interrogated by the police in Brasilia for the matter of the jewelry, for the coup acts on January 8 by followers, for an alleged coup plan and for allegedly having falsified vaccination certificates.
These are the investigations opened against Bolsonaro, as well as those that his children are also facing.
before the police
The former president declares this Thursday for an alleged diversion of several sets of jewels given away by Saudi Arabia, some of which entered Brazil irregularly in 2019.
The police suspect that Bolsonaro and his wife Michelle participated together with various collaborators in a scheme for the sale of official gifts received from foreign countries for the “illicit enrichment” of the former president (2019-2022).
(Also read: A hacker assures that Bolsonaro suggested to him to invade and manipulate the ballot boxes)
This includes, for example, a luxury watch that would have been sold and then repurchased in the United States.
The case could set up a crime of money laundering and embezzlement (appropriation of public property), subject to prison.
Bolsonaro denied having committed any crime in his previous statement in April before the Federal Police.
(Also: Brazilian police suspect that Jair Bolsonaro embezzled gifts from foreign countries)
He also denied before that force in May having participated in the alleged falsification of his vaccination certificate against covid-19, as well as that of other relatives.
Before the Supreme Court
Bolsonaro faces five investigations in the Federal Supreme Court (STF), subject to prison sentences.
Four were opened during his presidency, while in the last one he is investigated as the alleged instigator of the assault on the headquarters of the three powers on January 8 in Brasilia.
In one case, Bolsonaro is accused of interfering with the police to protect family members suspected of corruption.
(Keep reading: The reasons that led to the arrest of a close ally of former President Jair Bolsonaro)
He is also under investigation for spreading misinformation about electronic ballot boxes.
The other two investigations are for having leaked confidential information about a cyber attack on the electoral court and for having associated the anticovid vaccine with an alleged risk of contracting HIV during the pandemic.
It must also respond to processes in the first instance.
Among them, he is singled out for “subversion of order” for his participation in demonstrations with anti-democratic slogans on September 7, 2021.
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If he were sentenced to the maximum sentences for those crimes, the former president would face almost 40 years in prison.
Before electoral justice
The Superior Electoral Tribunal (TSE) declared Bolsonaro ineligible on June 30 for abuse of political power and improper use of the media for having attacked the electoral system without evidencethree months before losing the elections in October 2022 to the leftist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
His defense will appeal to the STF.
(Keep reading: Jair Bolsonaro, the rise and fall of the Brazilian right-wing leader)
Another 15 cases are being processed before the TSE for which new sentences could be added.
This includes actions for verbal attacks on the electoral system or for the alleged use of public machinery for one’s own benefit during the elections.
Your children, another concern
Four sons of the former president – three of them politicians – have also been charged with criminal suspicions, the most recent with Jair Renan as the protagonist.
The youngest son was targeted last week in a police operation for money laundering. In 2021 he had already been summoned to testify in the framework of another investigation for alleged payments of bribes from businessmen to close deals with the public administration.
(You can read: Former President Jair Bolsonaro is disqualified from holding public office for eight years)
Flávio, a senator from Rio de Janeiro, was accused in 2020 of having diverted public money from the state’s legislative assembly by “collecting” part of the salaries of employees in his cabinet. The investigation was archived.
Carlos, a legislator from Rio, is under investigation for a scheme to embezzle money by hiring “ghost” officials in his cabinet.
Eduardo, a representative for Sao Paulo, was investigated for buying apartments with cash between 2011 and 2016.
AFP
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