“They crucify me for a gift I didn’t receive”, says Bolsonaro about jewelry

Former president Jair Bolsonaro said this Saturday (4) that he was being “crucified” for a gift he neither asked for nor received, in reference to the jewels delivered by the government of Saudi Arabia that were retained by the Federal Revenue Service at the airport in Guarulhos (SP) in October 2021.

The jewels were a gift for Bolsonaro and the former first lady, Michelle Bolsonaro, delivered to the delegation of the Minister of Mines and Energy, Bento Albuquerque. They were in the backpack of an advisor to the minister, Marcos André dos Santos Soeiro, and were retained by the Revenue.

“I am being accused of a gift I neither asked for nor received. There is no illegality on my part. I never practiced illegally. See my personal corporate card. I have never withdrawn or paid a penny on that card,” Bolsonaro said on Saturday morning to CNN Brasil.

At the end of the afternoon, after participating in a conference of conservatives on the outskirts of Washington, capital of the United States, he stated that he did not try to illegally bring jewelry into the country.

“I am now being crucified in Brazil for a gift that I did not receive. I saw in some newspapers maliciously saying that I tried to bring illegal jewelry to Brazil. That does not exist”, said the former president, according to a report by “Folha de S.Paulo”.

“I was in Brazil when this gift was offered there in the United Arab Emirates to the Minister of Mines and Energy. His adviser brought it on a airliner and stayed at customs, I didn’t find out,” said Bolsonaro.

“They accuse me, they crucify me for a gift that I didn’t even receive from the first lady. Even the value of that was a surprise to me, [R$] 16 million who are saying. I don’t know, it might even be true,” said Bolsonaro, according to “Folha”.

The former head of the Special Secretariat for Social Communication of the Presidency of the Republic, Fabio Wajngarten, wrote on Twitter that the entire process of entry of jewelry into the country was documented at the time and that the documents prove that the gifts would be sent to the presidential collection.

Wajngarten published a letter from the Ministry of Mines and Energy, issued on November 3, 2021 – one week after the items were retained – and sent to the Federal Revenue, which requests the release of the items, implying that they would be directed to the collection, becoming property of the Brazilian State.

“Considering the specific condition of the Minister – representative of the President of the Republic; the impossibility of refusing or immediately returning gifts due to current circumstances; and the historical, cultural and artistic values ​​of the offered goods; it is necessary and essential that the collection be given the appropriate legal destination”, says the letter.

Wajngarten published another letter, dated October 29, 2021 and electronically signed on November 3, 2021, signed by the then head of the Assistant Cabinet for Historical Documentation (GADH), Marcelo da Silva Vieira. The GADH is linked to the Personal Cabinet of the President of the Republic.

In the document, addressed to the Minister of Mines and Energy, Vieira stated that those present were in the condition of being forwarded to the GADH “for analysis regarding the incorporation into the private collection of the President of the Republic or the public collection of the Presidency of the Republic”.

According to the former Secretary of Communication, “the jewels were in a sealed box that was only opened by the Revenue at the airport”. “No one knew what was inside. It is not true that the jewels were hidden,” he wrote.

“They invented a diamond scandal to silence the misconduct of Lula’s minister of communications, Haddad’s mess with the economy and an Iranian warship that no one knows what it was doing in Brazil… The picanha fell before the 5th for the consortium!” said Wajngarten.

The former first lady also used Twitter to speak out about the case. “You mean ‘I have all this’ and I didn’t know? My God! You’re going too far huh?! I am laughing at the inappropriateness of this vexatious press”, said Michelle.