The former president will be questioned on the ministerial meeting with coup-plotting content and on the messages exchanged between former advisors that motivated the launch of the Tempus Veritatis operation on the 8th
BRASILIA – President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) has been summoned to make a statement to the Federal Police (PF) this Thursday 22, regarding a coup d’état planned by him and his allies after the 2022 elections. To explain the plot, as was discovered through messages exchanged between his advisors and in the recording of a coup-related ministerial meeting in July 2022. The former president must remain silent during the hearing.
On the 8th Bolsonaro was the target of Operation Tempus Veritatis together with his former ministers, former advisors and high-ranking military personnel. By order of Federal Supreme Court (STF) Minister Alexandre de Moraes, the former president had his passport seized and was banned from leaving the country.
In a 135-page decision, Moraes showed that the operation’s targets were planning a coup in an organization made up of at least six different types of assets. According to the Federal Police, the tasks of the fronts had three objectives: to discredit the electoral process, to plan and execute the coup and to abolish the democratic rule of law.
On Monday 19th, Bolsonaro’s defense asked for the testimony to be postponed, specifying that the former president would not provide clarifications on the case until he had access to the conversations recovered on the cell phones seized in the investigation. Moraes rejected the request and said it was not up to the former president to choose the day of the interrogation.
In addition to Bolsonaro, other Tempus Veritatis targets were also summoned to give a statement to the PF. They are: the colonel and former aide-de-camp Marcelo Costa Câmarathe former councilor Tercio Arnaud Tomaz and the former Minister of Justice Anderson Torres.
Bolsonaro will be asked about conversations on the coup plan
Bolsonaro will be questioned by the PF about the conversations recovered on the cell phone of Lieutenant Colonel Mauro Cid, former aide-de-camp of the Presidency, and General Marco Antônio Freire Gomes, then commander of the Army. Message exchanges suggest the former president helped write and edit a draft coup.
According to the former aide-de-camp, Bolsonaro “got annoyed”. “He made a much more concise decree,” the lieutenant colonel said. “Something much more direct, objective, brief and limited.”
The initial version of the project envisaged, in addition to new elections, the arrest of authorities, such as STF ministers Gilmar Mendes and Alexandre de Moraes, and the president of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG). According to the PF, on Bolsonaro’s proposal, only the arrest decree for Moraes was maintained.
The meeting with coupist content should be subject to questioning by the PF
Bolsonaro will also be asked about the meeting he had with his ministers on July 5, 2022, three months before the presidential elections. In the meeting, recorded by Mauro Cid on Bolsonaro’s orders and without the knowledge of the previous government team, the former president encouraged the spread of disinformation about the electoral process and stated that this was not the case with the then Minister of Social Policies . Defence Paulo Sérgio Nogueira “put the troops on the street, set them on fire and machine-gunned them”.
On another occasion, the former minister of the Bureau of Institutional Security (GSI), General Augusto Heleno, who was also targeted by Tempus Veritatis, revealed that the Brazilian intelligence agency (Abin) had inserted infiltrators in the opponents’ campaign. Bolsonaro interrupted his speech and said the matter would be addressed privately by the two.
Bolsonaro was called to testify for the eighth time
It is the eighth time that the former president has been called to make statements to the PF since he left the presidency.
In August and October he went to the company headquarters in Brasilia to provide clarifications on the action of a group of entrepreneurs who hoped for a coup d’état through messages exchanged via WhatsApp. The second time he presented himself to the company to talk about the case, the former president remained silent and expressed his considerations in writing.
In July, the former president went to the PF to testify about an alleged coup meeting denounced by Senator Marcos do Val (Podemos-ES) which involved, in addition to the former president, former MP Daniel Silveira, in prison since February last year.
Do Val stated that Silveira had proposed a clandestine recording of Alexandre de Moraes in an attempt to get the minister to say “something that went beyond the four lines of the Constitution”. Bolsonaro denied the existence of the plan and said nothing had been said about Moraes.
In May Bolsonaro spoke about the fraudulent scandal involving his anti-Covid-19 vaccination cards and those of his daughter Laura. During his testimony, the former president reiterated that he had never been vaccinated and denied that he had been involved in tampering with information in the Ministry of Health’s systems.
Bolsonaro’s first trip to the PF headquarters took place in April, when he was summoned to explain his participation in the case of the illegal sale of jewels belonging to the Presidency of the Republic, revealed by Estadao one month before. During interrogation, the former president denied having used the government facility during his administration to steal the valuable items.
Also in April, the former head of the Executive had to explain his conduct in relation to the attack on the headquarters of the Three Powers on 8 January. Two days after the attack on public buildings, Bolsonaro posted a video on social media in which he questioned the fairness and reliability of the 2022 elections. The post was deleted a few hours later.
Source: Terra
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