Misconduct case lodged against Brazil’s president
BRASILIA: Three Brazilian senators formally accused President Jair Bolsonaro of malfeasance before the Supreme Court on Monday over allegations he failed to have a top ally investigated for suspicions of massive corruption in the purchase of Covid-19 vaccines.
The criminal complaint comes after a Senate commission investigating the administration’s pandemic response uncovered accusations last week that Bolsonaro knew about suspected corruption in Brazil’s $300 million deal for India-made vaccine Covaxin and failed to intervene.
“I filed a criminal complaint today with the Supreme Court,” said opposition Senator Randolfe Rodrigues, the commission’s deputy chair. A criminal case against Bolsonaro before the Supreme Court could see him removed from office.
The allegations emerged when a Singapore-based firm now suspected of being a shell company billed the Brazilian health ministry $45 million for yet-to-be-delivered doses of Covaxin, which did not have regulatory approval in Brazil.
It raised red flags for a health ministry official named Luis Ricardo Miranda. He refused to sign off on the advance payment, given that Brazil’s contract for Covaxin did not mention any firm in Singapore. Miranda told the Senate inquiry his superiors at the ministry exerted pressure on him to approve the transaction. He took his concerns to his brother, Luis Miranda, a congressman, who arranged a meeting for them with the president.
Miranda testified on Friday that Bolsonaro told them at the March 20 meeting he suspected the Covaxin deal was a corrupt scheme set up by Ricardo Barros, a lawmaker who is head of Bolsonaro’s coalition in the lower house. Miranda said Bolsonaro told him he would order the police to investigate, but never did.