Mauro Cid leaves prison in Brasília after Moraes’ decision

Following the decision by Minister Alexandre de Moraes, of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), the former aide-de-camp of ex-president Jair Bolsonaro (PL), Mauro Cid left prison this Saturday (9).

He had been in prison since May 3, when he was the target of a Federal Police operation investigating the insertion of false Covid vaccination data into the Ministry of Health’s system. The release comes after Moraes approved a plea bargain agreement between the military and the Federal Police.

“At the current procedural moment, the closure of numerous diligences by the Federal Police and the hearing of the investigated person, three times and after his incommunicability with the other investigated persons was decreed, point to the unnecessary maintenance of preventive detention, since there is no longer any of the exceptional hypotheses reasonably foreseen in the legislation that allow the relativization of the freedom to come and go for the purposes of criminal investigation”, says Moraes in his decision.

Cid will still have to comply with precautionary measures, such as using an electronic ankle bracelet, limiting leaving the house on weekends and at night, and being removed from his duties in the Army.

Moraes ordered Cid to comply with the following precautionary measures:

• use of an electronic ankle bracelet;
• appearance in court within 48 hours, and weekly appearance thereafter, on Mondays;
• ban on leaving the country and delivery of the passport within 5 days;
• cancellation of all passports issued by Brazil in his name;
• suspension of firearm possession, as well as registration certificate for collection, sports shooting and hunting;
• ban on the use of social networks;
• prohibition of speaking to other people being investigated, including through their lawyers. The exceptions are his wife, daughter and father.
• removal from the duties of his position as an officer in the Army.

In addition to the vaccine card case, Cid is being investigated for attempting to sell gifts received by Bolsonaro on official trips. He must also clarify his alleged involvement in negotiations regarding a possible invasion of the National Justice Council (CNJ) system by hacker Walter Delgatti Neto.