RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – President Jair Bolsonaro was dismayed on Tuesday, during his tour of Asia and the Middle East, after seeing his name linked to the investigation into the execution of Rio City Councilor Marielle Franco on March 14th, 2018.
On the day he met Arab investors in Riyadh, the president advised journalists that he is talking to the Minister of Justice, Sérgio Moro, asking the Federal Police to take a new statement from the employee who reported having called Bolsonaro’s home in the Vivendas da Barra Condo, to allow Élcio Queiroz entry on the day of Marielle’s murder.
According to the gatekeeper, murder suspect Élcio Queiroz was authorized by ‘Mr. Jair’ from house #58 of Vivenda da Barra – the president’s residence – to enter the premises. The access was recorded hours before Marielle’s execution.
Queiroz has been imprisoned since March this year on charges of taking part in the city councilor’s murder.
“I’m talking to the Minister of Justice for us to take a new statement from this employee by the Federal Police, to clarify these facts,” said Bolsonaro, as reported by BBC Brazil.
The announcement caused some embarrassment, as the president does not have the power to demand testimony in criminal investigations. Finally, Minister Moro requested the Federal Prosecutor General, Augusto Aras, to open an inquiry to investigate the denunciation reported in TV Globo’s Jornal Nacional, given its mention of President Bolsonaro’s name.
“The report itself clarifies, however, that on that date, the Honorable President of the Republic, then a federal deputy, was in Brasília, having logged his presence in two votes in the plenary session of the Chamber of Deputies”, describes Moro in his request to the PGR (Office of the Prosecutor General).
“The inconsistency suggests potential misconception in the investigation conducted in Rio de Janeiro, or an attempt to unduly involve the name of the President of the Republic”, describes the minister, requesting an investigation both by the Federal Prosecutor’s Office and the Federal Police.
Bolsonaro once again accused Governor Witson Witzel of leaking his name in an investigation that is under judicial seal, repeating what he said in a Live broadcast shortly after the release of the report that involved his name in the Marielle case.
However, the president detailed the contact he had with Witzel, who reported on the investigation 20 days ago. “I was at the Rio Naval Club on October 9th when Governor Witzel came and said the following: ‘The case is with the Supreme Court’. I asked him what case and he said ‘Marielle’s case. The superintendent mentioned your name,” he said.
The president sustains that Witzel has an interest in tarnishing his [Bolsonaro’s] image, in order to be able to run in the 2022 presidential elections. He also accused Rede Globo of wanting to damage his image for losing state-sponsored advertising. He called the network “scoundrels” who promoted “villainy”.
Witzel reacted to Bolsonaro’s allegations and averred that he does not interfere with state bodies. “I deeply regret President Jair Bolsonaro’s untimely remonstrance. I point out that there has never been any political interference in the investigations conducted by the Public Prosecutor’s Office and in charge of the Civil Police,” said the governor in a statement released on Wednesday morning.
The civil police also protested by rejecting interference in their work. “Governor Wilson Witzel did not interfere in the investigation into the murders of Marielle and Anderson, nor did he have access to the case documents, or those of any other investigations,” it reported in a statement, stressing that the case record remains confidential.
The question is why the governor would have told the president details of the investigation on November 9th, as reported by Bolsonaro.
The Globo network also reacted to the president, saying it had not done anything directed at him, but rather journalism when disclosing “the existence of the superintendent’s testimony and the statements he made.” But it stressed, that by its own independent investigation, it ascertained that the information from the employee “conflicted with one fact: the presence of then deputy Jair Bolsonaro in Brasília that day [March 14th], with two records on the list of voters.” i.
Despite the attacks, President Bolsonaro has limited power to reverse the negative news about his name due to suggestions of a potential link with Marielle’s killers.
The report in the Jornal Nacional further fuelled his government’s image crisis, which suffered a hellish week following the weekend’s disclosure of audios made Fabrício Queiroz, a thorn in the side of the president and his son Flávio Bolsonaro.
Queiroz is on the run and is being investigated for suspicious financial transactions of R$1.2 million, which suggests that he organized ‘split salaries’ in Bolsonaro’s office when Flávio was a state deputy.
In the audios, Queiroz says the Prosecutor’s Office has a “sting the size of a comet to burrow in us,” he says, referring to himself and now Senator Flávio Bolsonaro. “I didn’t see anyone react,” he said. He also cursed MP prosecutors and complained that he would not act in the government’s defense.
The audios, disclosed by the newspaper O Globo and Folha de S. Paulo, apparently dates back to the month of July.
Bolsonaro also got his knickers into another twist, by posting on his Twitter a video of a lion –supposedly himself — surrounded by hyenas, each with the name of his political opponents, but also of institutions that should be respected, like the Federal Supreme Court.
Source: El Pais