Former President Jair Bolsonaro testified Wednesday at the Federal Police headquarters in Brasília, as part of an investigation into jewelry gifted by the government of Saudi Arabia that the former head of state allegedly tried to illegally smuggle into Brazil for personal gain.
Last month, newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo revealed that a Brazilian delegation led by then-Mines and Energy Minister Bento Albuquerque returned from Saudi Arabia in October 2021 with a case containing a necklace, a watch, a pair of earrings, and a ring, as well as a gold horse sculpture approximately 30 centimeters long. The jewelry case alone was valued at more than USD 3 million.
The delegation did not record the jewelry as an official gift to the Brazilian government, which would make it government property. Nor did the aide carrying the items declare them to customs, which confiscated the case when it was found at São Paulo’s Guarulhos International Airport.
According to O Estado de S. Paulo, Mr. Bolsonaro then made several attempts to retrieve the confiscated jewelry.
Video footage from inside the customs department at Guarulhos airport shows that on December 29, 2022, at the very end of Mr. Bolsonaro’s term, a Navy sergeant and close aide to the then-president made a final attempt to obtain the jewelry, claiming that “nothing could be left” to the next government after the transition — a clear indication that the Bolsonaro administration did not intend for the gifts to be kept by the Brazilian state.
Mr. Bolsonaro also received a second Saudi gift from Swiss luxury watchmaker Chopard, valued at approximately USD 76,000.
This second case was stored at the Mines and Energy Ministry for more than a year and handed over to Mr. Bolsonaro in late November 2022, after he lost his re-election bid to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Two weeks ago, Mr. Bolsonaro’s aides handed over the smaller jewelry case to a federal bank, following an order from the Federal Accounts Court (TCU).
The TCU tells The Brazilian Report that Mr. Bolsonaro still has to provide information in its own investigation into the case.
The Federal Police did not disclose the content of Mr. Bolsonaro’s testimony on Wednesday. The Federal Police’s press office in Brasília referred questions to its branch in São Paulo — which is leading the case — but it did not respond.
A single pro-Bolsonaro demonstrator was spotted near the Federal Police headquarters yesterday. When the former president returned to Brazil last week, only a few dozen supporters greeted him at the headquarters of his Liberal Party.
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