Brazil police recommend criminal charges against ex-president Jair Bolsonaro

Federal police in Brazil have recommended that former president Jair Bolsonaro face criminal charges over claims he faked Covid-19 vaccine certificates, in what would mark the first formal indictment against the rightwing ex-leader.

Police also accused Bolsonaro of “criminal association”, or conspiracy, in a report released on Tuesday. The attorney-general must now decide whether to pursue the case.

“The evidence collected throughout this investigation demonstrates that Jair Messias Bolsonaro acted knowingly and willingly, determining that his chief of staff should mediate the insertion of false Covid-19 vaccination data into the Ministry of Health’s systems for the benefit of himself and his daughter,” said the police report.

Bolsonaro denies the claims.

Since leaving office at the end of 2022, Bolsonaro has faced a series of police investigations, including into whether he conspired to sell expensive undeclared gifts from overseas dignitaries and whether his administration used the country’s spy agency to illegally monitor the communications of hundreds of politicians, judges and journalists.

He also faces a police probe into accusations that he conspired with military officers to plan a coup following his election defeat in October 2022, an alleged plan that fizzled out. Bolsonaro has also denied those claims.

In the latest investigation, police have accused the 68-year-old Bolsonaro of conspiring with aides to enter false data into the country’s public health system in order to obtain a vaccine certificate. A group of 16 former aides and acquaintances was involved in the alleged scheme, police said.

A spokesperson for the former leader called the case “absurd”, adding that “while serving as president, [Bolsonaro] was completely exempt from presenting any type of certificate on his trips”.

The police investigation claims the alleged forgery was carried out in advance of a presidential trip to the US, which imposed strict entry requirements during the pandemic.

Mauro Cid, a former Bolsonaro aide, told police that the certificates were faked in order to deal with “any necessity”, according to police documents.

During his term in office between 2019 and 2022, Bolsonaro repeatedly ridiculed the use of vaccines, once suggesting that those who took the jabs were at a higher risk of contracting Aids.

More than 700,000 people have to date died from Covid in Brazil.

If prosecutors choose to pursue the case, it will be judged at the Supreme Court, many of whose judges have been openly critical of Bolsonaro.

Last year Bolsonaro was banned from running for political office until 2030 for spreading misinformation about the electoral system during the 2022 election. Police last month seized his passport for his role in the alleged coup plot.

Additional reporting by Beatriz Langella