Jair Bolsonaro, who denies having knowledge of the alleged forgery, must testify before the PF for the third time in less than two months.
Former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) is expected to testify at 2pm this Tuesday (16/5) at the federal police, the third in less than two months. This time, the inquest is investigating whether he was involved in an alleged fraud scheme on his vaccination card.
The PF has collected evidence that his former assistant Mauro Cid and other close advisers collaborated to issue fake COVID-19 immunization certificates for Bolsonaro and his daughter to ensure their entry into the United States in late 2022.
At the time, presenting this document to US customs was a requirement for most people, but, as a BBC News Brasil report showed, this would not have been necessary for Bolsonaro and his daughter, as their cases were part of the exceptions provided for in the country’s rules.
What the PF should try to clarify is whether or not Bolsonaro knew about the alleged forgery of documents. The former president denied knowing about it, as he told the press the day he was the subject of a police operation investigating the case and which arrested Cid and five other people.
For the PF, the records in the ConectaSus application – the Ministry of Health system that issues the vaccination certificate – that his former assistant had access to the account associated with the former president from within the Palácio do Planalto to issue vouchers fakes would strengthen the hypothesis that Bolsonaro knew about the fake.
If Bolsonaro’s possible participation is proven, he could be held responsible for the crime of entering false data into information systems, which carries a penalty of up to 12 years’ imprisonment and a fine.
Another central point investigated by the PF and which should be addressed in the testimony is whether the false certificates have been used by Bolsonaro on any occasion. Forging a document to enter the United States can be a federal offense in that country, with a penalty of up to ten years in prison.
Criminal lawyer Celso Vilardi, a professor at the Getúlio Vargas Foundation, assesses that there are strong indications justifying the investigation into Bolsonaro’s possible participation.
“At this point in the investigation, of course, it cannot be ruled out that he is involved in this conspiracy. After all, he is the main beneficiary and (according to the PF investigation) everything was done inside the Palazzo Planalto, with his closest advisers,” he told BBC News Brasil.
What does Bolsonaro say?
It is the third time in less than two months that Bolsonaro has provided clarifications to the PF. In April he testified about jewelry received from Saudi Arabia and not declared to the IRS and about his alleged influence in the January 8 anti-democracy attacks.
In the case of the vaccination certificate, the former president was even called to testify on May 3, when the PF carried out a search and seizure action at his home, but at that moment he did not want to speak to the carabinieri because , according to his defense, the lawyers had not yet had access to the documents.
Questioned by reporters as he left his home in Brasilia about suspicions of tampering with vaccine cards, Bolsonaro said “there is no such thing.”
“There were people who pressured me to take the vaccine, and I didn’t.
The Federal Constitution guarantees the right of suspects not to testify, establishing that no one is obliged to produce evidence against himself.
The expectation, however, is that this time the former president will speak to the PF to try to defend himself against the accusations.
One possibility is that he repeats that he is not aware of the alleged forgery and attributes the possible offense to an autonomous initiative by his subordinates.
BBC News Brasil has tried to contact Bernardo Fenelon, one of Mauro Cid’s lawyers, but has had no response. On CNN Brasil, the former aide de camp’s defense said that “all the defensive demonstrations will be made in the file”.
What the Federal Police say
For the PF, some elements indicate that Bolsonaro was aware of the forgery.
The investigation showed that vaccination certificates for Bolsonaro were issued four times between December 2022 and March this year, via the ConectaSUS app, and that this was done from a computer inside the Palácio do Planalto and from Mauro Cid’s cell phone.
The investigation also revealed that it was Cid who managed Bolsonaro’s access to ConectaSUS, as the president’s account was associated with an email from the former aide-de-camp.
In the report presented to the STF, the PF assesses that “the information collected demonstrated logical and temporal consistency from the insertion of false data in the SI-PNI system up to the generation of vaccination certificates against Covid-19”. For the agency, this indicates that Jair Bolsonaro and Mauro Cesar Cid “were fully aware of the fraudulent entry of vaccination data, remaining inert to such facts until the present moment”.
Were certificates used?
The PF is also trying to clarify whether the false certificates allegedly issued were actually used by Bolsonaro and his daughter.
People with diplomatic passports, as was the case with the former president during his presidential term, are exempt from complying with this obligation during official trips. Similarly, his daughter, as a minor, would also be exempt under US law.
In January, Bolsonaro applied for a tourist visa to stay in the United States. BBC News Brasil asked the US embassy in Brazil if proof of vaccination was required when applying for a visa, but did not receive a response clarifying the matter.
In addition to questioning Bolsonaro in the deposition, it is possible that the PF or the Attorney General’s Office will try to verify this information directly with the United States.
According to Yuri Sahione, a lawyer specializing in international cooperation, these bodies may request this information from the US Department of Justice, since the two countries signed a bilateral treaty in 2001 for collaboration in criminal investigations.
“The US government will analyze whether or not it will agree to the request and, if it understands that it can comply, it will send the information”, explains Sahione.
understand the case
Earlier this month, the PF carried out an operation against Bolsonaro and those around him, authorized by Minister Alexandre de Moraes, of the Federal Supreme Court. Searches were carried out at the former president’s home, and his mobile phone was confiscated. The PF also served six arrest warrants.
The group is suspected of entering false data on the covid-19 vaccination into the Ministry of Health system to falsify the vaccination certificates of Bolsonaro and his daughter; Mauro Cid, his wife and three daughters (two minors); and two other advisers to the former president.
Presumably, the purpose of the forgeries would be to allow these people to enter the United States, a country that until May 12 required this document to enter its territory (with exceptions, such as the travel of the authorities on an official mission).
According to the PF, the false data entry was made through the town hall of the city of Duque de Caxias (RJ). In the case of Bolsonaro, the information that the former president would have been vaccinated in that municipality with doses of Pfizer on August 13 and October 14 of last year was put into the system.
However, the PF report says there is no evidence that the president was at Duque de Caxias on August 13 when he carried out his program in the municipality of Rio de Janeiro.
As early as October 14, Bolsonaro had a brief agenda at Duque de Caxias, with no trace that he had been vaccinated on that date, the investigation underlined.
There is also no evidence that Bolsonaro’s daughter was in that municipality on the dates she would have been vaccinated (July 24 and August 13, 2022), according to suspicious information registered in the Ministry of Health system.
In addition, Bolsonaro’s daughter was living with her parents in Brasilia at the time, the PF points out in a report, and therefore “it would not have made sense” for her to have gone to the Duque de Caxias to get vaccinated.
The delegate of the case, Fábio Shor, also highlighted the long time between the alleged vaccination of Bolsonaro and his daughter and the registration of the application of the doses in the system, carried out on December 21, as evidence of fraud.
Source: Terra
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