Bolsonaro remains the top right-wing influencer in Brazilian politics
Brazilian police have officially charged former President Jair Bolsonaro with a fraud similar to that of his Covid vaccination card, paving the way for conceivable criminal charges in the Supreme Court.
His medical history indicates that he won the vaccine in Sao Paulo in 2021.
But further investigation revealed that he was not in town at the time.
Bolsonaro, a Covid skeptic who has publicly vowed never to get vaccinated, has denied any falsification of records.
Nearly 700,000 more people have died from Covid-19 in Brazil, according to Johns Hopkins University in the United States.
Federal police accuse Bolsonaro, who has routinely downplayed the severity of the virus, and eight others of conspiring to factor “false certificates in order to gain an undue advantage” in the pandemic.
Vaccination is an entry requirement in many countries, the United States added.
Brazil’s attorney general’s office will now decide whether to indict the former president.
In May last year, police questioned the 68-year-old in connection with the allegations and searched his home.
He denied the fees and accused the government of “fabricating a case” against him.
The new indictment is just the latest legal war he has faced, with the former president forced to withdraw his passport last month as part of an investigation into allegations that he tried to nullify the effects of the October 2022 election and pressure military leaders to join a coup attempt.
After his defeat in the presidential election to the leftist party of Luiz Ignacio Lula da Silva, thousands of his supporters stormed government buildings in the capital Brasilia, the presidential palace, the Supreme Court and Congress, looting and vandalizing the buildings.
Bolsonaro is still barred from running for office for eight years for undermining Brazil’s electoral formula and claiming that the last election was fraudulent, even though there is no evidence of voter fraud.
He was in the United States at the time of the attack on Congress. He returned to Brazil in March 2023, saying he had nothing to fear.
He remains the right-wing’s top influential figure in Brazilian politics.
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