Moraes removes confidentiality from statements by Bolsonaro, ministers and military

Minister Alexandre de Moraes, of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), removed this Friday (15) the confidentiality of the testimonies of former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL), former ministers and military personnel allegedly involved in an attempted coup d’état that led to to the launch of Operation Tempus Veritatisfrom the Federal Police, at the beginning of February.

In the order, Moraes states that the decision was taken “in view of the numerous journalistic publications with incomplete information about the statements given to the police authority”. A People’s Gazette seeks access to the testimonies, which have not yet been made available on the STF website.

See who are those mentioned by Moraes in the decision that makes the statements public:

• Jair Bolsonaro (PL): former president of the Republic, but remained silent during the testimony according to the defense;
• Valdemar Costa Neto: national president of the PL, answered the questions asked by the PF in the statement;
• Walter Souza Braga Netto: former Minister of Defense and candidate for vice-president on Bolsonaro’s ticket for re-election in 2022;
• Augusto Heleno Ribeiro Pereira: former minister of the Institutional Security Office (GSI) of the Bolsonaro government;
• Anderson Gustavo Torres: former Minister of Justice in Bolsonaro’s government, also answered the questions asked by the PF;
• Paulo Sérgio Nogueira De Oliveira: former Minister of Defense in the Bolsonaro government;
• Carlos De Almeida Baptista Junior: former commander of the Air Force;
• Marco Antonio Freire Gomes: former Army commander;
• Almir Garnier Santos: former commander of the Air Force;
• Ailton Gonçalves Moraes Barros: retired Army captain;
• Amauri Feres Saad: lawyer cited as author of the supposed draft that decreed a state of defense in the country;
• Angelo Martins Denicoli: Army reserve major;
• Bernardo Romão Correa Netto: Army colonel;
• Estevam Cals Theophilo Gaspar De Oliveira: former commander of the Army Land Operations Command (Coter);
• Cleverson Ney Magalhães: colonel, former officer of the Army Land Operations Command (Coter);
• Guilherme Marques Almeida: colonel and former officer of the Army Land Operations Command (Coter);
• Helio Ferreira Lima: lieutenant colonel, former aide-de-camp to Bolsonaro;
• Mario Fernandes: Army reserve commander and former deputy head of the General Secretariat of the Bolsonaro government;
• Marcelo Costa Câmara: Army general;
• Rafael Martins de Oliveira: Army lieutenant colonel;
• Ronald Ferreira de Araújo Júnior: Army officer;
• Sérgio Ricardo Cavaliere de Medeiros: Army major;
• Laércio Vergílio: retired Army colonel;
• Filipe Garcia Martins Pereira: former advisor to Bolsonaro;
• Tercio Arnaud Tomaz: former advisor to Bolsonaro;
• José Eduardo de Oliveira e Silva: priest from the diocese of Osasco;
• Eder Lindsay Magalhães Balbino: businessman.

On the other hand, the statements given by Bolsonaro’s former aide-de-camp, Lieutenant Colonel Mauro Cid, within the plea agreement, were not released by Moraes.

What was the operation like that led to the testimonies?

On the day of the start of the operation Tempus Veritatis, the Federal Police carried out 37 arrest, search and seizure warrants, and 48 precautionary measures in nine states and the Federal District. Bolsonaro was targeted with the decision to hand over his passport to the authorities.

Among the allies of the former president targeted by the PF in the operation were former ministers Walter Braga Netto (Casa Civil), Augusto Heleno (GSI), Anderson Torres (Justice) and Paulo Sérgio Nogueira (Defense), the former assistant to orders Marcelo Câmara, former advisors Filipe Martins and Tercio Arnaud Thomaz, among others.

Also involved were the military Admiral Almir Garnier Santos, former commander-general of the Navy who refused to participate in the inauguration of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT); General Estevan Teóphilo Gaspar de Oliveira, former head of the Army’s Land Operations Command; and retired Army colonel, Ailton Barros.

The national president of the PL, Valdemar Costa Neto, is also in the PF’s sights. The party’s national headquarters was searched and seized and he was detained for illegal possession of a firearm.

The targets of the operation were determined based on the testimony of Bolsonaro’s former aide-de-camp, Mauro Cid, arrested in May last year during the investigation into the insertion of false vaccination data against Covid-19 on the former’s vaccination card. president.

The Federal Police investigations indicate that the group investigated was divided into action groups to “disseminate the occurrence of fraud in the 2022 Presidential Elections”, even before the election took place, in order to “enable and legitimize a military intervention, in dynamic of digital militia”.

The nuclei, says the PF, were divided into two lines of action, the first being in the “construction and propagation of the version of fraud in the 2022 elections, through the fallacious dissemination of vulnerabilities in the electronic voting system”.

This, according to the PF, was a speech reiterated by those investigated since 2019 and which persisted even after the results of the second round of the election in 2022.

The second axis acted in the practice of “acts to subsidize the abolition of the Democratic State of Law, through a coup d’état, with the support of military personnel with knowledge and tactics of special forces in a politically sensitive environment”.