The Brazilian police has recommended that criminal charges be initiated against former president Jair Bolsonaro over claims that he faked Covid-19 vaccine certificates.
The police accused the former Brazilian president of “criminal association”, or conspiracy, in a report that was released yesterday. It is now up to the attorney general to decide whether it wants to pursue the case.
The report said that the former president acted knowingly and asked for inserting false Covid-19 vaccination data to benefit himself and his daughter. The former president has denied the claims.
Since he was ousted from power in 2022, Bolsonaro has been under the scanner from planning a coup to asking a spy agency to snoop on the communications of hundreds of politicians, judges and journalists.
The police have accused Bolsonaro along with 16 other aides of conspiring to enter false data to obtain a vaccine certificate.
Bolsonaro’s aides have termed the case as “absurd”, adding that “while serving as president, [Bolsonaro] was completely exempt from presenting any type of certificate on his trips”.
The investigation carried out by the police says that forgery was carried out ahead of the president’s trip to the US.
Bolsonaro during his term in office has repeatedly said that Covid vaccines served no purpose and taking jabs would put people at higher risk to contract Aids. Over half a million died in Brazil due to Covid-19 – the second-highest death count after the United States.
If the prosecutors decide to pursue the case, it would be taken up at the Supreme Court.
Brazil’s electoral court has already ruled Bolsonaro ineligible for public office until 2030 for spreading false information about Brazil’s voting systems on state television, forcing him to sit out the next presidential contest in 2026. Police last month seized his passport for his role in the alleged coup plot.
