Bolsonaro denies any wrongdoing connected to the gifts, and says he never attempted to hide anything.
Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro has appeared at the federal police headquarters to testify in an investigation into jewellery and gifts given in 2021 to the then-president and his wife by the king of Saudi Arabia.
Police closed the street outside the building on Wednesday.
The case has added to the legal jeopardy already surrounding the far-right politician's time as president.
He is also under investigation for any involvement in a rampage by his supporters through the national capital after he left office and for numerous actions during the presidential election campaign he lost last fall.
Federal police and prosecutors are investigating whether three sets of jewellery brought into the country from Saudi Arabia were public gifts that Bolsonaro improperly tried to prevent from being incorporated into the presidency's public collection or were private gifts that Bolsonaro tried to sneak into Brazil without paying taxes.
Brazil requires its citizens arriving by plane from abroad to declare goods worth more than $1,000 and, for any amount above that exemption, pay a tax equal to 50 percent of their value.
The three sets of jewellery would have been exempt from tax had they been a gift from the state of Saudi Arabia to the nation of Brazil, but would not have been Bolsonaro’s to keep.
After Bolsonaro left the Federal Police headquarters in Brazil’s capital on Wednesday, it wasn't known if he answered investigator's questions or exercised his right to stay silent.
He has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing connected to the gifts, and said he never attempted to hide anything.
READ MORE: Brazil court orders Bolsonaro to hand over gifts from Saudi Arabia and UAE
Obeying the law
In a statement on Tuesday, Bolsonaro's defence said that handing over the gifts showed his commitment to obey the audit courts decisions and willingness to respect the law.
A customs agent seized one of the sets, manufactured by Swiss brand Chopard and reportedly worth some $3 million, at Sao Paulo's international airport in October 2021 when an adviser to the then minister for mines and energy brought it into the country.
Documents and video footage published by Brazilian news outlets appear to show supposed emissaries of Bolsonaro making multiple unsuccessful attempts to retrieve the seized jewellery, up until just days before the end of his presidency.
A government watchdog ordered Bolsonaro to return the remaining jewellery to the state-owned Caixa Economica Federal bank.
He returned one set on March 24. The other was delivered on Tuesday, Bolsonaro's former communications chief, Fabio Wajngarten, wrote on Twitter.
Bolsonaro returned to Brazil last week after nearly three months in the United States of self-imposed exile following defeat in his bid for re-election last year.
READ MORE: Bolsonaro lands back in Brazil three months after election defeat
Copyright © 2024 TRT World.