Brazil senators support criminal charges for Jair
Bolsonaro over Covid crisis
Committee votes to support push to hold president
responsible for many of Brazil’s more than 600,000 Covid deaths
The decision on whether to file most of the charges
against Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, who denies any wrongdoing, will be
up to the country’s prosecutor general.
Associated
Press
Wed 27 Oct
2021 06.41 BST
A Brazilian
Senate committee recommended that president Jair Bolsonaro face a series of
criminal indictments for actions and omissions related to the world’s second
highest Covid-19 death toll.
The
seven-to-four vote on Tuesday was the culmination of a six-month committee
investigation of the government’s handling of the pandemic. It formally
approved a report calling for prosecutors to try Bolsonaro on charges ranging
from charlatanism and inciting crime to misuse of public funds and crimes
against humanity, and in doing so hold him responsible for many of Brazil’s
more than 600,000 Covid-19 deaths.
The
president has denied wrongdoing, and the decision on whether to file most of
the charges will be up to prosecutor general Augusto Aras, a Bolsonaro
appointee who is widely viewed as protecting him. The allegation of crimes
against humanity would need to be pursued by the international criminal court.
Senator
Omar Aziz, the chairman of the inquiry, said he would deliver the
recommendation to the prosecutor general on Wednesday morning. Aras’ office
said the report would be carefully reviewed as soon as it was received.
Regardless
of whether charges are filed, the report is expected to fuel criticism of the
divisive president, whose approval ratings have slumped ahead of his 2022
reelection campaign — in large part because of Brazil’s outsize Covid-19 death
toll. The investigation itself has for months provided a drumbeat of damaging
allegations.
Since the
start of the pandemic, Bolsonaro has sabotaged local leaders’ restrictions on
activity aimed at stopping the virus’ spread, saying the economy needed to keep
humming so the poor did not suffer worse hardship. He also has insistently
touted an anti-malaria drug long after broad testing showed it isn’t effective
against Covid-19, assembled crowds without wearing masks and sowed doubt about
vaccines.
Bolsonaro
has defended himself by saying he was among the few world leaders courageous
enough to defy political correctness and global health recommendations, and
that he hasn’t erred in the slightest.
The
report’s author, Senator Renan Calheiros, first presented the nearly 1,200-page
document last week. It says that by insisting on treatment with the
anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine as “practically the only government
policy to fight the pandemic, Jair Bolsonaro strongly collaborated for
Covid-19’s spread in Brazilian territory” and as a result is “the main person
responsible for the errors committed by the federal government during the
pandemic.”
Committee
members in the so-called G7 group of senators who aren’t from Bolsonaro’s base
agreed on most of the points in Calheiros’ report. They met Monday to hammer
out final adjustments to the text.
Changes
include recommending charges for 13 additional people, many of them current or
former Health Ministry employees, as well as the governor of hard-hit Amazonas
state. The final report recommends charges against two companies and 78 people
in all, including Bolsonaro, administration officials, dozens of allies and the
president’s three sons, who are politicians.
It also
adds an additional violation for allegedly spreading false news following
Bolsonaro’s live broadcast on social media last week claiming incorrectly that
people in the UK who received two vaccine doses are developing AIDS faster than
expected.
The report
also contains recommendations for two counts of “crime of responsibility,”
which are grounds for impeachment. But Lower House Speaker Arthur Lira, a
staunch Bolsonaro ally, would have to bring a vote on whether to open
impeachment proceedings — something seen as highly unlikely considering Lira is
currently sitting on more than 120 other impeachment requests, according to
information from the legislative body.
Senator
Flávio Bolsonaro, one of the president’s sons, called the report legally weak
and politically motivated. “The intent of some senators on the investigative
committee is to cause the maximum amount of wear and tear on the president,” he
told journalists.
Minutes
after the inquiry was finished, former US president Donald Trump said in a
statement that he endorses the Brazilian leader.
“President
Jair Bolsonaro and I have become great friends over the past few years. He
fights hard for, and loves, the people of Brazil — just like I do for the
people of the United States,” Trump said. “Brazil is lucky to have a man such
as Jair Bolsonaro working for them. He is a great president and will never let
the people of his great country down!”
An earlier
draft had recommended the president also be indicted for homicide and genocide,
but that was scrapped even before its presentation last week. Some committee
members opposed such charges, while others expressed concern that bombastic
claims could undermine the report’s credibility.
The Senate
committee’s final hearing on the inquiry on Tuesday ended with a moment of
silence for victims of the virus in Brazil.
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