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| US President Donald J. Filipe Martins on Friday, August 30, 2019, in the Oval Office of the White House. (Official White House Photo/Joyce N. Boghosian) |
Justice Alexandre de Moraes of the Supreme Federal Court (STF) has ordered the Federal Police to confirm, within 48 hours, whether data has been extracted from the cell phone of Filipe Martins, a former advisor to ex-President Jair Bolsonaro (PL), to prove his “actual use” at the end of 2022. Martins is trying to demonstrate to the magistrate that he did not travel on the Brazilian government's plane, circumventing the U.S. immigration system during that period.
As previously reported by O GLOBO, the phone company Tim sent the geolocation data of Martins' device to the magistrate last Wednesday, showing that he was in Paraná and Brasília at the end of 2022.
This document has been added to the investigation in which Martins is being scrutinized. The former International Affairs Advisor was preventively arrested by the Federal Police on February 8 during Operation Tempus Veritatis, which was probing a supposed criminal organization that allegedly acted to keep Bolsonaro in power through a coup attempt and the abolition of the Democratic Rule of Law.
According to the inquiry, the plot involved delivering a draft decree and preparing to carry out a coup “with the support of military personnel with special forces knowledge and tactics in a politically sensitive environment.”
Mauro Cid, Bolsonaro's former aide-de-camp, stated in his plea bargain that Martins drafted a supposed coup decree after the 2022 election results, which proposed the arrest of Moraes and an intervention in the Superior Electoral Court (TSE). According to information gathered by the Federal Police, the former advisor was at the Alvorada Palace on November 18 and December 16, 20, and 21, 2022.
In the arrest request sent to Moraes, investigators pointed out that Martins traveled “without performing the exit procedure with the passport in national territory” to “evade the application of criminal law.” Since the warrant was served at his girlfriend's house in Ponta Grossa, Paraná, he has denied leaving Brazil or participating in drafting a coup decree.
Since his arrest, the former advisor has sent Moraes credit card statements with expenses in Brazil, such as Uber and iFood, along with his passport and a certificate from the American border security agency.
Last month, he presented new certificates contesting evidence obtained by the Federal Police from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) website, which alleged his entry into Orlando on December 30, 2022.
“The Federal Police could have requested access to the official and definitive passenger list of the flight directly from the Presidency of the Republic, but instead, they relied on a draft of a supposed list, an unofficial document (as it was found only on the electronic devices of informant Mauro Cid, and not corroborated by the relevant agencies, official records, or proper channels), merely drafted, editable, which is even worse because it could have been edited by the informant himself—and it was based on this useless evidence that the Federal Police, demonstrating all their diligence, requested the petitioner's arrest, which was accepted and has now lasted four months,” stated the defense.
In the petition, lawyer Sebastião Coelho noted that the document formally issued by the U.S. government's border protection agency confirms that Martins last entered the country in September 2022.
On that occasion, he was accompanying Bolsonaro to the United Nations General Assembly in New York. The admission was for the G-2 visa class, granted to “government representatives traveling temporarily to participate in meetings in international organizations.”
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