The attempt by the Bolsonaro government (PL) to illegally bring into the country a set of diamond jewelry valued at around €3 million, equivalent to R$16.5 million, is a crime of smuggling and all those responsible must be punished, said this Saturday, 4, the chief minister of the Institutional Relations Secretariat, Alexandre Padilha.
As Estadão revealed, the jewels were a gift from the Saudi regime to the then president and first lady Michelle Bolsonaro and were seized at Guarulhos airport. who had traveled to the Middle East in October 2021.
“The IRS inspector who prevented this crime has to be deeply recognized. If it were to give a jewel, not R$ 16 million, it would be to give a jewel to this IRS inspector, who supported, not only him, but everyone who prevented this illegal smuggling, from illegally bringing what was received by a presidential entourage into the country. Padilha to the press, after participating in the 7th edition of the South and Southeast Integration Consortium (Cosud), at the headquarters of the Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV) in Botafogo, a neighborhood in the south zone of Rio de Janeiro.
According to Padilha, the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Finance opened further investigations on this topic. “All those responsible for this attempted illegal act must be severely punished”, defended Padilha. “Nothing is surprising in an attempt at illegality with this jewel. I don’t know what the jewel was for, the investigation will know, but regardless of what it was for, it is absolutely repugnant any attitude of a head of state or a public servant to want use of its power to commit an act of illegality like this”, he added.
The chief minister of the Secretariat for Institutional Relations believes that the fall of the 100-year-old secrecy imposed by the Bolsonaro government on different topics could reveal new illegalities committed. “Certainly we are going to discover other illegalities committed by the president who fled the country when the 100-year-old secrecy he ordered is made public.
