Bolsonaro will return weapons he won ‘with pain in his heart’ – 03/23/2023 – Politics

Former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) said he will return the weapons he received as a gift from UAE officials in 2019 “with pain in my heart”.

Bolsonaro also said that he would pay, if possible, to keep the equipment, but he would return them according to the decision of the TCU (Union Court of Auditors). The statements were given to TV Record in an interview aired this Thursday (23).

“I confess, with pain in my heart, I’m going to hand over the weapons, with pain in my heart, my name is there, I would pay what I have in my pocket here for those two weapons, but let’s not create any controversy with regard to the weapons,” said the former president.

He also spoke about the decision of the court of accounts that ordered the return of a set of men’s jewelry brought from Saudi Arabia in 2021 by a Brazilian delegation headed by then-minister Bento Albuquerque. He said he had no intention of, according to him, disappearing with the items, incorporated into his personal collection.

Bolsonaro also said that former first lady Michelle Bolsonaro was not aware of any gift to her by Saudi Arabia, and that the legislation would allow the possession of luxury items, making it possible to sell them to the Union. “I did the right thing according to the law.”

He also stated: “Our minister received two gift boxes. One was held up at customs, the other was for a gift. I only found out about it a year later, and my wife found out about it through the press. My wife has nothing to do with it. to do with it. The box that would be for her was in the Revenue.”

On the last 15th, the Court of Auditors had determined that the material be delivered to the General Secretariat of the Presidency of the Republic. TCU president, Minister Bruno Dantas, maintained that the former president could not keep the jewelry and said that, for a gift to be incorporated into private assets, it should be classified as a very personal item and be of low value.

Minister Walton Alencar, dean of the TCU, highlighted that the measure was a way of preserving the public interest and safeguarding standards of morality within the public administration. Alencar stated that the jewels must be cataloged and be part of the public heritage.

In the same TV interview, the former president said he intended to return to the country on March 30, but that the date is not final. Previously, however, Bolsonaro said he would return a day earlier, on March 29, and that he would study the situation in the country a week before to make his return definitive or not.

Bolsonaro also reiterated the conclusions made on his social networks about the operation launched by the PF against suspects of planning attacks against authorities, such as Senator Sergio Moro (União Brasil-PR).

It associated the plan of the criminal faction PCC (First Command of the Capital) with the agenda of the then presidential candidate Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) in Complexo do Alemão, in Rio de Janeiro, in 2022, and the visit of the Minister of Justice, Flávio Dino (PSB), to the Maré complex, also in the Rio de Janeiro capital, this month.

On Wednesday (22), the former president expressed solidarity with Moro and the prosecutor Lincoln Gakiya —who would also be targeted by criminals— and, without indications or proof, sought to link the PF investigation to two other crimes: the stabbing he suffered in Juiz de Fora (MG), in 2018, and the murder of former mayor of Santo André (SP) Celso Daniel, in 2002.