Brazil’s police charge former President Bolsonaro with money laundering and criminal association

SAO PAULO (AP) — Brazil’s federal police have charged former President Jair Bolsonaro with money laundering and criminal association in connection with undeclared diamonds the far-right leader received from Saudi Arabia during his time in office, according to a source familiar with the allegations.

A second source confirmed the charges, but did not specify any specific crimes. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

The police report containing the indictment has not yet been submitted to Brazil’s Supreme Court. Once it arrives, the country’s Attorney General, Paulo Gonet, will analyze the document and decide whether to press charges and bring Bolsonaro to trial.

The charges dramatically raise the stakes in a series of investigations into the controversial ex-politician, who was applauded by his opponents but denounced as a political persecutor by his supporters.

Bolsonaro and his lawyers have denied any wrongdoing in connection with the case, as well as the numerous investigations underway against the former president, which allegedly include instructing an aide to tamper with public health records in order to forge his COVID-19 vaccination certificate, for which he already chargedand involvement in inciting an uprising in the capital Brasilia on January 8, 2023, aimed at overthrowing his successor.

Last year, the federal police accused Bolsonaro of trying to Smuggling diamond jewelry allegedly worth $3 million and the sale of two luxury watches.

Police said in August that Bolsonaro had received nearly $70,000 in cash from the sale of two luxury watches given to him by Saudi Arabia. Brazil requires its citizens arriving by plane from abroad to declare goods worth more than $1,000 and pay a tax of 50 percent of their value on any amount above that allowance.

The jewelry would have been exempt from tax if it had been a gift from Saudi Arabia to Brazil. However, Bolsonaro would not have been allowed to keep it for himself. Instead, it would have been added to the presidential collection.

The investigation revealed that one of Bolsonaro’s top advisers, Mauro Cid, sold a Rolex watch and a Patek Philippe watch to a store in the United States for a total of $68,000 in June 2022. They had been gifted by the Saudi Arabian government in 2019. Cid later signed a deal with the authorities and confirmed everything.

Bolsonaro continues to enjoy unwavering loyalty among his political base. as the strong support in February showed, when some 185,000 people clogged São Paulo’s main avenue to protest what the former president called political persecution.

His critics, especially members of the party of his rival President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, welcomed any progress in the investigation and repeatedly called for his arrest.

Last year, Brazil’s top electoral court ruled that Bolsonaro abused his presidential powers during his 2022 re-election bid, which would bar him from running in any elections until 2030. The case centered on a meeting in which Bolsonaro used government officials, the state television network and the presidential palace in Brasilia to tell foreign ambassadors that the country’s electronic voting system was rigged.

Bolsonaro is expected to meet Argentine President Javier Milei this weekend at a conservative conference in Balneario Camboriu in southern Brazil.