The home of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro raided by police investigating allegedly counterfeit COVID-19 vaccine cards.
Bolsonaro’s cards, his circle of relatives and advisers had been changed, according to local media.
During the coronavirus pandemic, the country’s far-right former president was skeptical about the coronavirus vaccine and doubted the vaccine’s effectiveness and refused to get vaccinated.
But fitness records that were made public in February this year indicated he registered as vaccinated.
A federal police official said Bolsonaro, 68, would be arrested and showed that one of his closest allies, Mauro Cid, had been arrested.
The federal police press office said officials conducted 16 raids and arrested six other people in Rio de Janeiro. They did not call Bolsonaro or Bolsonaro.
Click to subscribe to Sky News Daily anywhere you get your podcasts
Bolsonaro showed that a raid had been conducted at his home in Brasilia and reiterated that he had never won a COVID vaccine. He also denied any involvement in the alleged falsification of documents.
“For my part, there is nothing counterfeit. I didn’t get the vaccine. Period,” he said, adding that his phone was seized.
Officials said they were investigating “false data” that was allegedly added to a national COVID-19 database between November 2021 and December 2022, when he was president.
A police officer said the alleged insertion of false data allowed those whose vaccine cards were altered to meet U. S. vaccine requirements. U. S. Enter the country.
After losing to Lula da Silva in October’s presidential election and leaving office last year, Bolsonaro recently returned to Brazil after several months in the United States, where he generally kept a low profile on the sidelines of some speeches.
He is also the subject of several investigations, adding his alleged role in fomenting protests that ended with his supporters storming several government buildings.
Read more: Bolsonaro returns to Brazil from USBolsonaro investigated riots in Brazilian government buildingsBrazil faces that democracy can be very fragile
As president, Bolsonaro insisted that the antimalarial hydroxychloroquine was a remedy for COVID, despite a lack of falsified medical evidence.
Brazil’s death toll from the pandemic was the highest in the world.
A congressional investigation found he was accused of botching the nation’s COVID response, adding to push for unproven treatments.