Bolsonaro to ‘face charges’ on handling of Covid-19
A BRAZILIAN Senate committee has recommended 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 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 Mr 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.
Mr Bolsonaro has denied wrongdoing, and the decision on whether to file most of the charges will be up to Prosecutor-General Augusto Aras, a presidential 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, has said he would deliver the recommendation to the prosecutor-general yesterday morning. Mr Aras’s office said the report would be carefully reviewed as soon as it is 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 re-election campaign – in large part because of Brazil’s outsized Covid19 death toll. The investigation itself has for months provided a drumbeat of damaging allegations.
Since the start of the pandemic, Mr Bolsonaro has sabotaged local leaders’ restrictions on activity aimed at stopping the virus’s 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 is not effective against Covid-19, assembled crowds without wearing masks and fuelled doubts about vaccines.
Mr 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 has not erred in the slightest.
The report 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 socalled G7 group of senators who are not from Mr Bolsonaro’s base agreed on most of the points in the report.
They met on 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 Mr Bolsonaro, administration officials, dozens of allies and the president’s three sons, who are politicians.