Jewelry gifted to ex-president Jair Bolsonaro and ex-first lady Michelle Bolsonaro by Saudi government and seized by customs officials is displayed at Guarulhos International Airport in Sao Paulo.
Brazil's federal audit court [TCU] has ruled that former president Jair Bolsonaro must deliver within five days a second set of jewellery he received from Saudi Arabia's government.
The order on Wednesday comes a few days after Brazilian police launched an investigation into an attempt to illegally bring the jewellery valued at $3.2 million into the country, gifts to the then-president and his wife Michelle from by the Saudi king.
TCU, which oversees the government coffers, also ordered the far-right ex-army captain to hand over to the presidential palace collection two guns he received as presents from the UAE in 2019.
Under Brazilian law, public officials can only keep gifts that are "both highly personal and of minimal monetary value," said the court's president, Bruno Dantas, in a public hearing, giving Bolsonaro "five days to return all items involved in this case to the rightful owner, the presidential palace."
On Monday, Bolsonaro's lawyer said in a letter to the police that the former president will deliver the second gift to the state as part of its collection of presidential gifts.
The TCU court also ordered that the first set of jewellry, seized by customs officials in 2021 in the backpack of a government aide returning from Saudi Arabia, be kept in custody at the presidential offices, in addition to opening an audit on all gifts received by Bolsonaro during his term.
Several officials from the Bolsonaro administration unsuccessfully tried to recover the jewellery — a diamond necklace, ring, watch and earrings — that was being held by customs, according to local media.
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Bolsonaro in hot water
The unanimous ruling from the court is the latest chapter in a drama that has dominated headlines in Brazil since allegations emerged earlier this month that Bolsonaro tried to illegally import millions of dollars' worth of jewellery he and his wife received as gifts from Saudi Arabia.
The episode has turned into a legal and political headache for the ex-president, who is currently in the United States an d expected to return soon to Brazil, hoping to lead the opposition to his leftist successor, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
The scandal erupted when newspaper Estado de Sao Paulo reported that customs officers intercepted an aide to Bolsonaro's then-mines and energy minister trying to enter Brazil with a backpack containing diamond jewellry from Swiss luxury firm Chopard after an official trip to Saudi Arabia in October 2021.
It later emerged Bolsonaro had kept a second set of jewels, also from Chopard, that entered Brazil undetected after the same trip.
Bolsonaro, who is still in self-exile in the United States, will be called to testify as part of the investigation, Brazilian Justice Minister Flavio Dino said on Monday.
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