The investigation is related to suspicions that fake vaccine certificates were obtained for Bolsonaro and his close circle
In Brazil, the police have searched for the country’s far-right ex-president Jair Bolsonaro home and confiscated his phone.
The search is related to suspicions that Bolsonaro, who is known for his criticism of vaccines, and his close circle falsified their vaccine certificates related to the coronavirus in order to circumvent travel restrictions.
Bolsonaro has denied the accusations and claims that the authorities are fabricating a fake lawsuit against him.
– There was no falsification on my part. Nothing. I have not been vaccinated, Bolsonaro told reporters outside his home after the search.
Before the search, the authorities had said that they had uncovered an arrangement in which Bolsonaro’s assistant Mauro Cidin is suspected of using his contacts in the country’s health care system to obtain fake vaccine certificates for Bolsonaro and his family, among others.
According to the Supreme Court, the evidence against Bolsonaro is solid
The police said in a communication sent to the Supreme Court that they had found evidence that Bolsonaro was fully aware of the arrangement. The home search was ordered by a judge of the country’s highest court Alexandre de Moraesaccording to which the evidence of Bolsonaro’s involvement is solid.
The operation included several other searches, and in connection with it, Cid and Bolsonaro’s presidential aides were arrested Max Guilherme Machado de Moura and Sergio Rocha Cordeiro. According to Bolsonaro, a handgun was confiscated from him along with the phone.
Bolsonaro was severely criticized for his poor handling of the coronavirus pandemic during his presidency. More than 700,000 people were killed in the pandemic in Brazil.
It is unclear whether a certificate was needed for the trip to the United States
Bolsonaro traveled to the United States at the end of last year after losing a tight election to a leftist challenger Luiz Inacio to Lula da Silva at a time when the United States still required vaccination certificates from air passengers coming from abroad. The US is dropping the requirement this month.
However, the requirement did not apply to members of government in office, and according to Bolsonaro, he was not asked for a vaccine certificate in the United States.
However, Bolsonaro’s position as head of state officially ended just one day after the trip, and according to the AFP news agency, it is unclear whether the vaccination certificate requirement applied to him at the time of the trip or not. The United States does not publicly comment on individual visa matters.
Source: AFP