New Defense Counsel for Flávio Bolsonaro Reverses Strategy, Wants Him to Testify

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Flávio Bolsonaro‘s new attorneys, on Tuesday, June 23rd, filed a petition asking for the senator to be deposed on the alleged “splitting” scheme – the kickback of a portion or all of his staff employees’ salaries – in his former position as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Rio de Janeiro (ALERJ). Attorneys Luciana Pires and Rodrigo Roca said they filed the petition at the Rio de Janeiro Prosecutor’s Office so that Flávio could “provide clarification”.

With Bolsonaro’s former attorney Frederick Wassef’s withdrawal from the case, after Flavio’s former senior staff Fabrício Queiroz was arrested in the attorney’s country home in Atibaia, in the interior of the state of São Paulo, the duo took over the senator’s defense in the investigation into the alleged misappropriation of ALERJ employees’ salaries.

The move points to a change in the strategy pursued by the defense so far. Before this, in December 2018, the Prosecutor’s Office had already summoned Flávio to testify, but the senator failed to appear before the prosecutors and began to file a string of motions and petitions challenging the investigation and calling for the case to be dismissed.

The first of these was filed with the Supreme Court (STF) and argued for the right to be heard by the STF, since Flávio had been elected to the Senate. The appeal was ultimately rejected by Justice Marco Aurélio Mello.

After that, Flávio’s defense counsel began to point out purported irregularities in the Financial Activities Control Council (COAF) reports that identified atypical transactions of R$1.2 million in Queiroz’s accounts and dragged the then deputy to the heart of the criminal investigation. The appeal was also ultimately rejected by the STF late last year.

Today, the Rio de Janeiro court will judge a habeas corpus petition filed by the senator’s counsel last March. Should the majority of the five judges of the 3rd Criminal Chamber agree with the attorneys’ arguments, all the precautionary measures imposed in the “splitting” scheme case, including the lifting of bank secrecy and the arrest of Fabrício Queiroz, may be overturned.

Last Friday, June 19th, a day after Queiroz’s arrest, the Rio de Janeiro Federal Prosecutor’s Office subpoenaed the senator to testify in a second investigation related to the case. The intention is for Flávio to be heard about alleged Federal Police leaks in Operation Furna da Onça.

The investigation is part of the newly opened proceeding involving statements made by a former government ally, the entrepreneur and pre-candidate to Rio’s mayoralty Paulo Marinho, claiming that the President’s eldest son was tipped off in advance of the operation that brought to light the atypical transactions in Queiroz’s accounts.

Source: O Estado de S. Paulo