Brazilian judge orders Bolsonaro to explain Saudi jewels

BRASILIA: A Brazilian judge ruled on Friday that ex-President Jair Bolsonaro (Picture) must be questioned over reports he tried to illegally import $3.2 million worth of jewelery given to him and his wife by Saudi Arabia.

The far-right ex-army captain has faced growing questions over the October 2021 episode in which customs officers allegedly confiscated undeclared diamond jewels since Brazilian media reported on it last week.

The jewels were reportedly carried in a backpack by a government adviser returning from an official trip to the Middle East.

A judge at Brazil’s Federal Audit Office (TCU), which oversees government coffers, ordered Bolsonaro and his former Mines and Energy Minister Bento Albuquerque to give investigators testimonies as to whether the jewels were personal gifts or gifts to the nation, and why they weren’t have been correctly declared.

Bolsonaro lost re-election to another four-year term in October and has been in Florida for two days before his left-wing successor, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, took office on Jan. 1, 2023.

Judge Augusto Nardes ordered Bolsonaro “not to wear, use, or transfer ownership of any item from the collection.”

According to the Estado de Sao Paulo newspaper, which first broke the story, Bolsonaro administration officials intervened at least eight times to convince customs officials to buy the confiscated jewels — a necklace, a ring, a watch and a pair of earrings — from Swiss to publish luxury house Chopard.

Subsequent media reports said that a second set of donated jewels from Saudi Arabia was taken undetected to Brazil after the same trip and handed over to Bolsonaro.

The second set reportedly includes a watch, a pen and a pair of cufflinks, also made by Chopard.

Federal police and tax officials both announced on Monday that they had started investigations into the case.

According to Brazilian law, travelers entering the country with goods worth more than $1,000 must declare them.

The first family would then have had to either pay import duty on the jewels – equal to half their value – or give them to the Presidential Palace Collection as official gifts to the nation.

Bolsonaro denies wrongdoing.

“You are accusing me of a gift that I neither requested nor received,” he told CNN Brasil last Saturday from the United States. –AFP