unsaveSave
expand-left
full screen Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro. Archive image. Photo: Eraldo Peres/AP/TT
Brazil’s federal police have formally charged former president Jair Bolsonaro with falsifying information that he and his daughter, among others, were vaccinated against covid-19.
Bolsonaro was one of the few world leaders who protested the vaccine during the corona pandemic. He flouted infection control restrictions and urged other Brazilians to follow his example.
The criminal charges now concern the manipulation of the Ministry of Health’s database, which according to the police happened just before Bolsonaro went to the United States, just before his term of office expired, in December 2022. A trip for which he is said to have needed a vaccination certificate.
Bolsonaro himself has said several times that he has never taken a covid-19 vaccine.
The next step is for the Attorney General to decide whether charges should be brought in the Supreme Court. The maximum sentence for falsifying health information can lead to up to twelve years behind bars.
Bolsonaro has denied wrongdoing. His lawyer calls the accusations absurd and says that Bolsonaro, as president, never had to show any certificates for his travels.