Cid confessed to handing over money to Bolsonaro, says magazine – 09/14/2023 – Politics

Lieutenant Colonel Mauro Cid told the Federal Police that he handed over part of the money from the sale of luxury watches received as state gifts into the hands of former president Jair Bolsonaro, according to a report in Veja magazine.

The value would be US$68,000, delivered in installments, with part transferred on American soil and the other in Brazil.

The money from the sale of the Rolex and Patek Philippe watches was deposited into the account of Cid’s father, retired general Mauro Lourena Cid, withdrawn and delivered directly to the former president, according to the report.

According to a transcript of a report published by the magazine, Cid, who was an aide-de-camp at the Presidency under Bolsonaro, said he thought the sale could be immoral, but not illegal.

Bolsonaro has denied receiving money from the sale of jewelry. The former president’s defense even made his bank transactions available to the authorities and said that he “never appropriated or diverted any public assets.”

Cid, however, told the PF that the sale of the watches would serve to cover Bolsonaro’s expenses. According to the magazine, the soldier said that the former president was worried about his financial life and had been ordered to pay several fines.

The lieutenant colonel confessed that he was responsible for defrauding the vaccination cards of Bolsonaro, assistants, his wife, Gabriela Cid, and daughters. According to Veja, the objective was to have safe conduct to be used if the family was the target of possible persecution after the change in government.

According to the magazine, Cid told the PF that he was afraid that his daughter wouldn’t be able to go to school and his wife wouldn’t be able to go to the market.

The soldier denied to investigators that he had carried out coup plans — such as the script for a coup d’état found by the PF on the lieutenant colonel’s cell phone.

In his statements, Cid also shielded the generals and former ministers Augusto Heleno, Braga Netto and Luiz Eduardo Ramos.

According to Veja, he said he never saw Braga Netto take any proposal to Bolsonaro, Ramos disappeared during that period and Heleno was more worried about the then president’s health than about the demonstrations.

The confession would have been made during the more than nine hours in which the lieutenant colonel gave testimony about the case to investigators. In recent weeks, Cid has testified to the Federal Police three times.

He left jail last Saturday (9), after Minister Alexandre de Moraes, of the STF (Supreme Federal Court), approved a plea bargain agreement with the Federal Police.

Cid, however, needs to wear an electronic ankle bracelet, cannot maintain contact with other people being investigated, except family members, and has to present himself weekly to the Federal District Court. The soldier remained in prison for four months due to suspected participation in Covid vaccination card fraud.

He and Bolsonaro are being investigated in the so-called digital militia inquiry, which is being processed by the Supreme Court. The lieutenant colonel and his father were targets of an operation launched in August regarding an alleged “rescue operation” of jewelry that had been sold abroad.

The first testimonies in the context of the plea bargain, however, should begin next week. Lawyer Cezar Bitencourt, who defends the soldier, asked the PF to only summon Cid for new hearings starting next week, because he needs to attend to other clients.

The content of the collaboration agreement, as well as its conditions and details, remain confidential.

In the release decision, Moraes said that “the closure of numerous investigations by the PF and the hearing of the person being investigated, three times and after his incommunicado status with the other people being investigated was declared, indicate the unnecessary maintenance of preventive detention”.

The magistrate said, however, that failure to comply with any of the alternative measures to prison will lead to the decree of a new prison.

In a post on social media, the head of the Attorney General’s Office, Augusto Aras, stated on Saturday that the body does not agree with collaboration agreements signed by the PF, as was the case signed by the military.

A SheetAt the beginning of the week, Bolsonaro stated that Cid “is a decent person with good character.” “He’s not going to invent anything, because whatever he says, he’s going to have to prove it.”

“I’ve always treated him like a son of mine. I feel sad about what’s happening, right? I didn’t want him to be in that situation. He’s been investigated since 2021. For fake news? Because of my lives, in which I talked about Covid-19? What is the classification of fake news in the Penal Code? There is none.”