Mauro Cid’s defense asks for provisional release after intention to plead – 09/08/2023 – Power

The defense of Mauro Cid, former aide-de-camp to former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL), said that he requested his provisional freedom from Minister Alexandre de Moraes, of the STF (Supreme Federal Court).

The information was released by journalist Camila Bomfim, from GloboNews, and confirmed by UOL.

The request for release is still being analyzed by Moraes, who is the rapporteur for the investigations in which Cid is being investigated. It is up to the Supreme Court minister to decide whether to keep the soldier in prison or whether to allow him provisional release pending trial.

The request for release occurs at the same time that the Army lieutenant colonel handed the STF a “term of intent” to make a plea bargain agreement.

The proposal will now be sent to the MPF (Federal Public Ministry) —which will give its opinion— and needs to be accepted by Moraes.

The Federal Police reported that they agree with Cid’s proposal. This information was revealed by GloboNews and also confirmed by UOL.

Cid was at the STF last Wednesday accompanied by his lawyer, Cezar Roberto Bitencourt, and met with an assistant judge from the office of Minister Alexandre de Moraes. The terms of the plea bargain have not yet been defined.

To have his collaboration approved by the courts, the colonel has to not only give statements, but also present evidence.

The lieutenant colonel has been in prison since May. He is suspected of irregularly selling gifts received by Bolsonaro from other heads of state, of falsifying Covid-19 vaccine cards and of having worked to organize a coup d’état.

What weighs against Cid

Cid was at Bolsonaro’s side in interviews, lives and meetings, and was the then President of the Republic’s right-hand man during the four years of the last government.

The Army officer participated directly in the jewelry case from the first steps. At the end of the government, Cid dispatched an assistant to try to rescue a jewelry kit that the couple Jair and Michelle Bolsonaro received from the government of Saudi Arabia. The jewelry had been detained by the Federal Revenue Service at Guarulhos airport, in São Paulo.

The former aide-de-camp also participated in the operation to sell other valuables that Bolsonaro received as a gift as head of state. The items should have been returned to the Union, but were shipped for sale in the United States.

In the case of the jewelry appropriated by the former president and which was put up for sale, Cid left traces in emails, conversations via messaging applications and financial transactions that could end up compromising his former boss.

On August 28, when Bolsonaro and Michelle remained silent in a statement given to the PF, Cid spoke to the police for more than 10 hours.

Cid is also being investigated for being involved in the scandal involving the invasion of the CNJ (National Council of Justice) system by hacker Walter Delgatti Netto and the falsification of Bolsonaro’s family’s vaccination cards, which led to his preventive arrest in May.

Cid’s lawyer has already written articles against whistleblowing

On August 17, lawyer Cezar Bitencourt told Veja magazine that the former aide-de-camp would confess that he sold the jewelry received by his former boss in official diaries, transferred the money to Brazil and handed over the amounts in cash to Bolsonaro. .

But Bitencourt then retreated and said that his client sought to resolve “a problem” with the boss, but denied that he had acted on a specific order from the former president.

The third criminalist to assume Cid’s defense, Bitencourt has already given public statements and written articles against the instrument of plea bargaining. In a text published in 2017 on the Consultor Jurídico portal, entitled “Awarded delation is a legal favor, but unethical”, the lawyer called the collaborations an “extraordinary figure”.

“It is not possible to ethically admit, without any questioning, the awarding of a delinquent who, to obtain a certain advantage, ‘snitches’ on his partner,” he wrote.

Cid helped jewelry sales, says PF

According to PF investigations, Cid and other Bolsonaro allies allegedly sold jewelry and other valuables received on official trips by the Presidency of the Republic outside the country.

The luxury items were supposed to be incorporated into the Union’s collection, but they were omitted from the knowledge of public bodies, traded for the purpose of illicit enrichment and delivered in cash to the former head of the Executive, according to the PF.

The lieutenant colonel would have sold — also with the help of his father, General Mauro Lourena Cid — jewelry abroad.

According to the PF, one of the pieces sold by the former aide-de-camp was a Rolex watch, estimated at R$300,000 and received by Bolsonaro on a presidential trip to Saudi Arabia in 2019.

Among the emails recovered from the trash of Mauro Cid’s account, obtained by the CPMI (Mixed Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry) on January 8, is the negotiation for the sale of the Rolex.

Cid knew that jewelry could not be sold

In another exchange of messages with lawyer Fábio Wajngarten, in March, Cid demonstrates that he already knew that the jewelry received by the government would be assets of public interest.

Furthermore, the lieutenant colonel was aware that, even if the items were legally part of the then president’s personal collection — which is not the case, as they are not very personal —, the Union would have the right of preference for acquisition if were sold.

The revelation appears in messages exchanged between Cid and lawyer Fábio Wajngarten, who is part of Bolsonaro’s defense in the jewelry case and was his Communications Secretary during his term in office.

Cid’s cell phone files were obtained by UOL columnist Juliana Dal Piva.

According to the investigators, the amounts obtained from the sales were converted into cash and entered the former president’s personal assets, through oranges and without using the formal banking system, with the aim of hiding the origin, location and ownership of the values.

In another audio between Cid and Câmara, in January, the former aide-de-camp mentioned US$25,000 that was with his father and would be destined for Bolsonaro.