STF removes secrecy of Bolsonaro’s vaccine card fraud operation

Brasilia DF) – Minister Alexandre de Moraes, of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), withdrew, this Wednesday afternoon (3), the secrecy of the investigations of the inquiry that led to the seizure of the cell phone of former president Jair Bolsonaro and the arrest of the colonel Mauro Barbosa Cid, former assistant in the Presidency of the Republic.

According to the Federal Police (PF) report in Operation Venire, Cid articulated the issuing of false vaccination cards for covid-19. First to his wife, Gabriela Santiago Cid, and their two daughters, and then to Bolsonaro and his underage daughter. In testimony this Wednesday, he was silent in front of the police.

The investigations were based on breaches of Cid’s telematic and telephone secrecy within the scope of another investigation, which deals with a live in which Bolsonaro associated, without proof, the vaccine against covid-19 with contamination by AIDS.

The PF thus had access to data stored by Cid on Google and Apple cloud services, which gave impetus to the investigations. Images of conversations between Cid and several people involved were attached to the process.

In all, six people were arrested. In addition to Cid, the following were also arrested: military police officer Max Guilherme; Sérgio Cordeiro, Bolsonaro’s bodyguard; Sergeant Luiz Marcos dos Reis; former Army major Ailton Gonçalves Moraes Barros; and the Municipal Secretary of Government of Duque de Caxias (RJ), João Carlos de Sousa Brecha.

Another 16 people were searched and apprehended, including former president Jair Bolsonaro, whose cell phone was seized. His wife’s cell phone, Michelle Bolsonaro, was not taken by the police

The Federal Police pointed out indications that those involved had committed crimes such as criminal association, ideological falsehood and corruption of minors. The Attorney General’s Office (PGR) was against the search and seizure at Bolsonaro’s house in Brasília, but Minister Alexandre de Moraes decided to authorize it at the request of the PF.

“There is no indication in the file that lends credibility to the version that the aide-de-camp of the former President of the Republic JAIR MESSIAS BOLSONARO could have commanded a relevant criminal operation, aimed directly at the then representative and his daughter LFB, without, at least, knowledge and his acquiescence, a circumstance that can only be ascertained by carrying out the search and seizure measure required by the police authority,” wrote Moraes.

the forgery

To carry out the frauds, the former aide-de-camp had the help of Sergeant Luiz Marcos dos Reis, whose nephew, the doctor Farley Vinícius Alcântara, issued a fraudulent document for Gabriela Cid from the municipality of Cabeceiras, in Goiás. He filled out vaccination cards from the Health Department of Goiás and signed using his stamp and registration number at the Federal Council of Medicine (CFM).

Also according to the investigations, images of the cards were sent in PDF format to 2nd Sergeant Eduardo Crespo Alves, so that he could try to enter the data into the Ministry of Health system from Rio de Janeiro. The objective would be to allow the issuance of the vaccination certificate against covid-19 through the ConectaSUS application.

The attempt just didn’t work out because the health systems accused that the batch of the vaccine supposedly applied had not been distributed to Rio de Janeiro, but to Goiás. Cid, however, did not give up. He contacted the lawyer and reserve soldier Ailton Gonçalves Barros, who managed to issue a vaccination card in the Rio de Janeiro municipality of Duque de Caxias.

After that, those involved were able to enter the data into the health systems. This allowed Cid and her family members to issue the certificate of vaccination against covid-19 several times, always in the proximity of trips to the United States, as shown by the PF investigations.

Jair Bolsonaro

Bolsonaro began to be investigated in the case after an alert from the Comptroller General of the Union (CGU), in January 2023, to the Federal Police. This warning noted that, despite the fact that the then president was vaccinated on August 13 and October 14, 2022, also in Duque de Caxias, there was no evidence that this had actually happened. occurred.

From there, the PF found that data on vaccines were entered by Brecha, Government Secretary of the Rio de Janeiro municipality, into the health systems, on December 21, 2022. The procedure would have been the same in relation to Bolsonaro’s daughter. Days later, the data was erased by the operator Claudia Helena Acosta Rodrigues da Silva, with the justification that it was an “error”.

In the meantime, Covid-19 vaccination certificates were issued for Bolsonaro and his daughter, who left for the US at the end of December. She traveled on the 27th and the former president on the 30th. Such certificates would have been issued and printed by Bolsonaro’s assistant, Marcelo Costa Câmara, from inside the Planalto Palace. The police obtained the location of the devices when using ConectaSUS.

The PF report details that “the information collected demonstrated logical and temporal coherence from the insertion of false data in the SI-PNI system to the generation of vaccination certificates against Covid-19, indicating that Jair Bolsonaro, Mauro Cesar Cid and, possibly, Marcelo Costa Câmara were fully aware of the fraudulent insertion of vaccination data, remaining inert in relation to such facts until the present moment”.

The 114-page document is signed by PF delegate Fábio Alvarez Shor, responsible for the case.

Other side

In the name of Bolsonaro’s defense, the former minister of the Secretariat of Communication Fábio Wajgarten told journalists that the former president will only testify to the Federal Police when his lawyers have access to the case files, which has not yet occurred.

“President Bolsonaro will be available to the competent authorities, as he always has been, as soon as the defense has access to the file,” said Wajgarten. According to him, the former president is meeting with his lawyers. He also said that lawyer Marcelo Bessa has already petitioned the Supreme Court, on behalf of Bolsonaro, asking for access to the process.

*With information from Agência Brasil

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