Brazil judge orders Bolsonaro to present explanations on Saudi Jewels

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
11 Mar 2023 09:26

A judge orders Bolsonaro and a former minister to present explanations to investigators on whether jewels from Saudi Arabia were personal presents or gifts to the nation.

Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro during an event at the Planalto Palace in Brasilia, Brazil, March 21, 2022 (Reuters)

A Brazilian judge on Friday ruled that former President Jair Bolsonaro must face questioning over reports he tried to illegally import jewelry worth $3.2 million gifted to him and his wife by Saudi Arabia.

The far-right ex-army captain has faced mounting questions over an October 2021 incident, in which customs officers allegedly seized undeclared diamond jewels, according to Brazilian media reports last week.

The jewels were allegedly carried by a government aide in a backpack returning from an official trip to the Middle East.

A judge on Brazil's Federal Court of Accounts (TCU), which oversees the government coffers, ordered Bolsonaro and his former Mines and Energy Minister, Bento Albuquerque, to present explanations to investigators on whether the jewels were personal presents or gifts to the nation, and why they were not properly declared.

Bolsonaro lost reelection to another four-year term in October and has been in the US state of Florida since two days before his leftist successor, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, took office on January 1, 2023.

Judge Augusto Nardes ordered Bolsonaro not to "wear, make use of or transfer ownership of any piece from the collection."

According to the newspaper Estado de Sao Paulo, which first broke the story, Bolsonaro administration officials intervened at least eight times to try to convince customs officers to release the seized jewels -- a necklace, a ring, a watch, and a pair of earrings from Swiss luxury house Chopard.

Subsequent media reports said a second set of gifted jewels from Saudi Arabia was brought into Brazil undetected after the same trip and given to Bolsonaro. The second set reportedly features a watch, a pen, and a pair of cufflinks, also made by Chopard.

Federal police and tax officials both announced on Monday that they had opened investigations into the case. Under Brazilian law, travelers entering the country with goods worth more than $1,000 are required to declare them.

The first family would then either have to pay import duty on the jewels -- equal to half their value -- or give them to the presidential palace collection as official gifts to the nation.

Bolsonaro denies wrongdoing. "They're accusing me over a gift I neither requested nor received," he told CNN Brasil last Saturday.