Bolsonaro Says Witzel Manipulated Marielle Franco Investigation to Frame Him

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – President Jair Bolsonaro accused the governor of Rio, Wilson Witzel, on Saturday, November 2nd, of manipulating the investigations into the murder of city councilor Marielle Franco and her driver, Anderson Gomes, to implicate him in the crime.

The president had already accused Witzel of leaking information from the case to hurt him and, at the same time, to boost his [Witzel’s] eligibility for a run seeking the Presidency in 2022.

On Saturday, Bolsonaro said he was certain that it was the governor of Rio de Janeiro who placed his name at the heart of the investigation. “(Witzel) could not have access to a confidential case. I believe that he acted in the case to include my name,” said the president, while heading to a Honda dealership to pick up a motorcycle he purchased.

Bolsonaro also accused the Civil Police detective in charge of the Marielle case of being the governor’s “buddy”. Bolsonaro added that Justice Minister Sérgio Moro had been called in and approached the Prosecutor General of the Republic, Augusto Aras, to discuss the case.

“I don’t deal with Aras in this regard. It is not appropriate, the handling of the case with Aras was conducted through the Minister of Justice,” he said.

“It was requested, everything is deferred. It is up to the Federal Police with the assistance of the Federal Prosecutor’s Office in the Rio de Janeiro section. Let’s hear the gatekeeper, let’s hear the detective too. The detective who is very friendly with the governor, and obviously I would like the governor to attend too, right?”, said the president.

Bolsonaro said he is a victim of persecution and reiterated that he was not in his home in the Vivendas da Barra Condo on March 14th, 2018, when one of the suspects of murdering Marielle and Anderson accessed the premises by telling the gatekeeper that he would be going to the residence of the then federal deputy.

“I was here (in Brasília), not there. Also, we took it before it was tampered with, we took all the answering machine’s memory, which has been kept there for more than ten years, the voice is not mine. It’s not ‘Mr. Jair’. Now, I suspect that the gatekeeper read it without signing it or he was persuaded to sign it,” said Bolsonaro.

The president said that Witzel “only got elected thanks” to Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, his son, and then “started using the state machinery” to pursue him and another of his children, Rio city councilor Carlos Bolsonaro.

“All my friends are being investigated now in Rio de Janeiro. Why is that? Because he dreams and obsesses with being president, and I am an obstacle that needs to be defeated. He lost, Witzel, because on October 9th he had access to a confidential case. You shouldn’t have access to that document,” said Bolsonaro.

Asked by journalists as to what Witzel may have done, the president replied: ” He manipulates the case”. “The actual case, of the gatekeeper,” he said.

Bolsonaro confirmed that he learned that the governor of Rio had had access to the case file over a dinner party to celebrate the birthday of Augusto Nardes, minister of the Federal Audit Court (TCU), on October 9th.

“He said this: I sent your case to the Supreme Court. And I said: what case of mine? Oh, Marielle’s. What do I have to do with Marielle? The gatekeeper said that he went to your house on March 14th. Oh, he was at my house?”

“At the time I didn’t know where I had been on March 14th, I could have been somewhere else, I could even have been at home, right? More so on a Wednesday at around 5 PM. And later I saw it, and I had been suspecting him for some time, that he was after me and my family in Rio de Janeiro for this purpose,” said Bolsonaro.

He said he had not believed what Witzel said at the time. “I hope now that they won’t frame up the gatekeeper. It may be that he is responsible, but we can’t help but analyze the governor’s involvement,” he said.

Commitment

On Friday, November 1st, Witzel refuted Bolsonaro’s claim that he was behind including the president’s name in the investigations.

The governor also congratulated the Federal Solicitor General (AGU) for having started a proceeding to investigate the leak of data to the Jornal Nacional on the gatekeeper’s testimony to the Civil Police in which he reports that one of the suspects of Marielle’s murder was heading to Bolsonaro’s house in Vivendas da Barra condominium, in Rio.

“Whether in uniform, wearing a badge, a politician or a powerful man’s son. I have no commitment to thugs. I took on the State without any commitment to drug traffickers or militiamen. All those who act against justice will be arrested, will be investigated,” said Witzel at the time.