Mauro Cid arrives at the PF to testify about fraud in Bolsonaro’s vaccination card

Brasilia DF) – Lieutenant Colonel Mauro Cid, former assistant to Jair Bolsonaro (PL), arrived at the headquarters of the Federal Police this Thursday afternoon (18) to give testimony within the scope of investigations into vaccination card fraud.

The soldier entered the PF building, in Brasília, through the garage, thus avoiding contact with the press.

The military should be questioned about the insertion in the SUS system of false vaccination data for his family — his wife, Gabriela Ribeiro Cid, and three daughters — and also for Bolsonaro and the youngest daughter of the former president, Laura.

Mauro Cid has been in prison since May 3 on suspicion of having entered false data on vaccination against the new coronavirus into the system. That day, the PF carried out a search and seizure operation at Bolsonaro’s house and arrested other advisors to the former president.

According to the PF, the suspects allegedly attempted to insert false data on Covid-19 vaccination into the system.

The investigation points out that it was inserted into the system as if Bolsonaro had taken two vaccines against Covid-19, the first of them on August 13 and the second on October 14, 2022.

The inclusion of this retroactive vaccination record in the Ministry of Health’s network, however, only took place on December 21, shortly before the then president traveled to the US. The next day, on December 22, Bolsonaro’s vaccination certificate was issued from inside the Planalto Palace.

Days later, on December 27, a certificate was issued again, and then the user, on behalf of the head of vaccination in Duque de Caxias, deleted the record from the system with the justification of “error”.

On behalf of Minister Alexandre de Moraes, of the STF, the PF appoints Mauro Cid as the main organizer of the scheme.

According to the PF, Bolsonaro was aware of the fraudulent entry of data into the system. “Jair Bolsonaro, Mauro Cid and, possibly, Marcelo Câmara were fully aware of the fraudulent insertion of vaccination data, remaining inert in relation to such facts until the present moment”, says the PF.

On Tuesday (16), Bolsonaro testified to the PF about the investigation of the case. The former president said that he did not determine the insertion of false data in his vaccination card and that of his daughter. He also stated that he only became aware of the adulteration when this topic began to be publicized by the press, in February of this year.

Mauro Cid’s testimony came to be seen as an unknown quantity, in particular after the change in the military’s defense. Lawyer Rodrigo Roca announced last week that he would drop the case.

Roca is known for being close to the Bolsonaro family and has already advocated for Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ) in the case that became known as “rachadinhas”, in his former office in the Legislative Assembly of Rio de Janeiro, where he served between February 2003 to January 2019.

Jair Bolsonaro’s defense was betting on Lieutenant Colonel Mauro Cid’s admission of guilt, assessing that he would have no alternative but to acknowledge having tampered with immunization certificates.

The evaluation of the ex-president’s interlocutors heard by the Sheet is that the PF investigation brought robust elements that are difficult for Cid to refute. They cite, for example, message exchanges and access from the military’s own cell phone to the account of the then representative in the ConectaSUS application.

*With information from Folha de S.Paulo

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