Brazil: Federal Police indict the far-right politician for the appropriation of jewels given to the Presidency

The Brazilian Federal Police charged the former president on Thursday Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2022) in the case in which he is being investigated for the alleged attempt to misappropriate some million-dollar jewels that were given to him by Arab countries when he was still serving as head of state of Brazil.

After concluding the respective investigation, the police filed charges against twelve people, including the far-right leader, for the crimes of appropriation of public property, money laundering and criminal association, official sources confirmed to EFE.

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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 magistrate of the Supreme Court who instructs the investigation, Alexander de Moraeswho must send 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 charges of criminal association against the twelve people under investigation, including the former Minister of Mines and Energy Bento Albuqerque and Bolsonaro’s then aide-de-camp Mauro Cid; charges of embezzlement (appropriation of public property) against seven and charges of money laundering against nine.

The case concerns a set of jewels and valuable objects that the far-right 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 investigations, Bolsonaro sold some of these jewels through intermediaries, although some of his collaborators bought them back once the State demanded their return.

Among the accused is the lawyer Frederick Wassef,defender of the former president, and who, according to the investigation, traveled to USA 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.

Last March, Bolsonaro was also charged with criminal association and use of false data in official records, in the case in which he is being investigated for alleged fraud in obtaining the vaccination certificate against the virus. covid-19.

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 that 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 far-right leader in power.

The coup attempt had a final chapter on January 8, 2023, when thousands of supporters of the ultra leader 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.