1970-01-01 02:00:00
Dressed in the olive green uniform of the Army, Lieutenant Colonel Mauro Cid, former assistant to Jair Bolsonaro (PL), appeared this Tuesday, 11, at the Joint Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (CPMI) on January 8 and chose to remain silent, which frustrated the members of the collegiate.
The commission had a list of 41 registered parliamentarians to ask questions to the military in the session. In six hours of hearing, however, Cid refused to respond to all of them, including the most trivial ones, such as age, how many children he has and whether he had two cell phones. In the face of silence, the CPMI approved requests for breach of telephone, telematic and bank secrecy by the lieutenant colonel and 20 other investigated persons.
Cid was questioned from the outset about his relationship with Bolsonaro and the former president’s possible connection to the January attacks. “With all due respect to Your Excellency, but within the scope of the investigations conducted by the Federal Supreme Court, I follow the guidelines of my technical defense and, based on habeas corpus, I will maintain the right to remain silent”, said Cid. He repeated the answer to each question asked by the rapporteur, senator Eliziane Gama (PSD-MA), and other parliamentarians.
Cid is investigated in eight investigations that are being processed by the Supreme Court and the Federal Police. One of them investigates the participation of the military in the January coup acts. On another front, he is suspected of defrauding vaccination cards against covid-19. It was this investigation that led to his arrest in May. He is being held at the Army Police Battalion in Brasilia.
Opening
Cid only broke his silence at the opening of the session, by defending himself against the accusations he faces in relation to coup-like conversations held with other military personnel and by trying to detach himself from Bolsonaro. “It was not within my sphere of attribution to analyze proposals and decrees brought by ministers, authorities and supporters. I did not participate in the public decision-making process”, he stated. “In practice, the aide-de-camp function consisted of the executive secretariat functions of the president.”
Cid also sought to remove responsibility for his actions from the former president. He stated that his employment relationship was with the Institutional Security Office and that his nomination in the Ajudancia de Ordens was not a “political appointment” because the function is carried out by chosen ones from the Armed Forces. “The aide-de-camp is the only personal function of the president that is not of his choosing.”
The Army Command informed, by means of a note, that it instructed Cid to wear the uniform “under the understanding that the active-duty military was summoned to deal with matters related to the function for which he was designated by the Force”.
Questions
After opening the session, Cid was silent. He did not speak about the coup “script” discussed with Colonel Jean Lawand Junior. He also refused to say who told him to pay bills for former first lady Michelle Bolsonaro and make use of the Presidency’s corporate card for withdrawals. Even the question by congresswoman Erika Hilton (PSOL-SP) as to whether she was aware of the reason that led her to the CPI went unanswered.
The president of the collegiate, deputy Arthur Maia (União Brasil-BA), complained. He said that the collegiate should file a complaint against the military for failing to comply with the STF order that forced him to appear as a witness in questions that did not incriminate him. Minister Cármen Lúcia decided that Cid should testify, but with the right to remain silent only on issues that could incriminate him.
“What they are doing is locking an honest person in jail and throwing away the key,” said deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro (PL-SP) in defense of his father’s ally.
The information is from the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo.
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