Brazil’s federal police have charged former President Jair Bolsonaro with money laundering and criminal conspiracy, sources said.
The charges relate to undeclared diamonds the far-right leader allegedly received from Saudi Arabia during his time in office, according to a source familiar with the accusations.
A second source confirmed the indictment, although the specific crimes were not specified.
The Brazilian Supreme Court has not yet received the police report containing the indictment.
Once received, the country’s attorney general, Paulo Gonet, will analyze the document and decide whether to initiate proceedings and force Mr. Bolsonaro to appear in court.
The indictment dramatically raises the stakes in a series of investigations targeting the controversial former leader that have been applauded by his opponents but denounced as political persecution by his supporters.
Mr Bolsonaro and his lawyers have denied any wrongdoing in this case, as well as in the many other investigations the former president faces.
These investigations include an accusation that he ordered an aide to falsify his Covid-19 vaccination certificate, for which he has already been charged, as well as his involvement in inciting an insurrection in the capital Brasilia on January 8, 2023, aimed at removing his successor from power.
Last year, federal police accused Mr Bolsonaro of trying to smuggle diamond jewellery, reportedly worth $3m (£2.3m), and selling two luxury watches.
In August, police said Mr Bolsonaro had received nearly $70,000 (£54,000) from the sale of two luxury watches he received as a gift from Saudi Arabia.
Brazil requires its citizens arriving by air from abroad to declare goods worth more than $1,000 and, for any amount above this exemption, pay a tax equal to 50% of their value.
The jewels would have been tax-free if they had been a gift from Saudi Arabia to Brazil, but not if Mr Bolsonaro had kept them for himself. They should have been added to the presidential collection.
The investigation found that one of Mr Bolsonaro’s top aides, Mauro Cid, sold a Rolex watch and a Patek Philippe watch to a store in the US in June 2022 for a total of $68,000 (£53,000).
These watches were donated by the Saudi government in 2019.
Cid then signed a plea agreement with the authorities and confirmed everything.
Flavio Bolsonaro, the former president’s eldest son and a sitting senator, said on X-rated radio after Thursday’s indictment that the persecution against his father was “flagrant and shameless.”
Police have charged 10 other people, including Cid and two of Mr Bolsonaro’s lawyers, Frederick Wassef and Fábio Wajngarten, one of the sources said.
Wassef said in a statement that he did not have access to the investigation’s final report and denounced the selective leaking to the press of an investigation that was supposed to be conducted under seal.
Mr. Bolsonaro retains strong allegiance among his political base, as evidenced by a surge of support in February when some 185,000 people packed São Paulo’s main avenue to protest what the former president calls political persecution.
His critics, particularly members of the political party of his rival, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, have welcomed every step forward in the investigations and repeatedly called for his arrest.
Last year, Brazil’s top electoral court ruled that Mr Bolsonaro had abused his presidential powers during his 2022 re-election campaign, making him ineligible to run for re-election until 2030.
The case involved a meeting in which Mr Bolsonaro used government employees, state television and the presidential palace in Brasilia to tell foreign ambassadors that the country’s electronic voting system was rigged.
Mr Bolsonaro is due to meet Argentine President Javier Milei this weekend at a conservative conference in Balneário Camboriú in southern Brazil.
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