Brazil: Corona investigative committee recommends indicting President Bolsonaro

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Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro: Serious allegations because of his Corona policy

Photo: Eraldo Peres / AP

A committee of the Brazilian Senate has voted in favor of bringing charges against President Jair Bolsonaro over his Corona policy.

Seven of the eleven committee members formally approved an investigation report in the capital Brasília on Tuesday.

It holds Bolsonaro responsible for at least nine crimes - from deceiving the public to inciting criminal offenses to crimes against humanity.

The investigation committee's report also called for charges to be brought by the public prosecutor's office against almost 80 other suspects, including several ministers and ex-ministers as well as three sons of Bolsonaro.

Legal consequences for Bolsonaro are unlikely

The report of the Senate Committee, compiled as the result of six months of research, had already been published last week.

In the fight against the corona pandemic, the Bolsonaro government "acted slowly and deliberately exposed the population to a real risk of mass infection," according to the almost 1200-page report.

As a first step, members of the committee of inquiry want to hand over the report to Attorney General Augusto Aras, who was appointed by Bolsonaro and who has often patronized the president in the past.

It is feared that six months of work could fizzle out.

The initiation of parliamentary impeachment proceedings against the head of state is also not in sight, as he has sufficient support in Congress to avert such proceedings.

Senate committee calls for the suspension of Bolsonaro's accounts on the online networks

However, the actions of the senators could politically damage the president, who wants to run for re-election next year.

According to surveys, Bolsonaro threatens a clear defeat in the election against the left-wing ex-head of state Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

However, Bolsonaro rejects all allegations about his corona policy.

"We know we are absolutely not guilty of anything," he said last week.

"We know we did the right thing from the first moment."

The Senate Committee has now also asked the country's Supreme Court to block all Bolsonaro's accounts in the online networks.

The President's access to YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram should therefore be blocked for an indefinite period of time because it had incorrectly made a connection between corona vaccinations and AIDS on Facebook.

In his weekly live address on Facebook on Thursday, Bolsonaro quoted nonexistent "official reports" from the British government, according to which people who have been completely vaccinated against the coronavirus develop AIDS "much faster than expected".

Facebook deleted the video on allegations of disseminating medical misinformation, and YouTube imposed a week-long ban on the president.

Bolsonaro has played down the corona virus since the beginning of the pandemic and rejects protective measures and restrictions.

He also doubts the point of vaccinations.

He himself has not yet been vaccinated.

He is accused of refusing to purchase corona vaccines and dragging them off.

In total, more than 600,000 corona deaths have been recorded in Brazil since the beginning of the pandemic.

The South American country ranks second in the world behind the USA.

The approval for Bolsonaro has continued to decline in the course of the pandemic - there are always large protests against Bolsonaro's corona policy.

anr / dpa / AFP