Brazil police recommend criminal charges against Bolsonaro

Rio de Janeiro: Brazil’s federal police recommended former President Jair Bolsonaro be criminally charged in a scheme to falsify his Covid-19 vaccine card, partly to travel to the United States during the pandemic, in the latest sign of criminal investigations closing in on the former president.

Federal prosecutors will now decide whether to pursue the case. If they do, it would be the first time the former president has faced criminal charges.

Brazilian police accused Bolsonaro of ordering a top deputy to obtain falsified Covid vaccination records for himself and his daughter, 13, in late 2022, just before the former president traveled to Florida to stay for three months following his election loss.

Brazilian police said they were awaiting an answer from the US Justice Department on whether Bolsonaro used a fake vaccination card to enter the United States, which could bring different criminal charges. At the time, most international visitors to the US were required to show proof of Covid vaccination to enter the country.

Bolsonaro has said he did not receive the Covid vaccine, but he has denied accusations that he was involved in any plan to falsify his vaccination records. His lawyer said in a text message that he was still reviewing the accusations.

Bolsonaro, if convicted of forging his vaccine card, could face prison time.

The federal police’s indictment is the first time the various investigations into Bolsonaro have moved toward charges.

Bolsonaro has been subject to questioning and searches as part of several inquiries, including into the selling of watches and jewels he received as presidential gifts from Saudi Arabia and accusations that he worked with top government officials to hatch a plan to try to hold onto power following his 2022 election loss.

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.

During the pandemic, Bolsonaro was critical of the Covid vaccine, notoriously joking that it would turn people into alligators and instead promoting unproven treatments, such as an antimalarial drug called hydroxychloroquine.

His administration hesitated to secure vaccines when they were first being distributed, exacerbating the pandemic in Brazil, according to a Brazilian congressional investigation that recommended the former president be charged with “crimes against humanity,” among other charges, for his actions during the pandemic.

The prosecutor at the time did not charge him. Nearly 600,000 people died in Brazil because of Covid, the second-highest national death count after the United States.

In May 2023, police searched Bolsonaro’s home, confiscated his cellphone and arrested one of his closest aides and two of his security guards as part of the investigation into the fake vaccination records.