Brazilian prosecutor tosses ex-President Bolsonaro’s COVID-19 vaccine status case
SAO PAULO (AP) — Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro scored a legal win on Thursday after the country’s prosecutor-general tossed a federal police investigation that accused him of falsifying his COVID-19 vaccination status.
The decision of Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet came one day after a panel of Supreme Court justices ruled that Bolsonaro and seven of his allies will stand trial on five counts, including attempting to stage a coup after the far-right leader lost the 2022 election.
Gonet argued in his decision sent to the Supreme Court, which will have the final word on the case, that he did not find enough evidence against Bolsonaro in the federal police accusation he received one year ago.
Federal police accused Bolsonaro and his aides of tampering with the health ministry’s database shortly before he traveled to the United States in December 2022, two months after he lost his reelection bid to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and shortly before the leftist leader took office for the third time in his career.
Bolsonaro needed a certificate of vaccination to enter the U.S., where he remained for the final days of his term and the first months of Lula’s term. The former president has repeatedly said he has never taken a COVID-19 vaccine.
Brazil’s federal police alleged that Bolsonaro and 16 others had inserted false information into a public health database to make it appear as though the then-president, his 12-year-old daughter and several others in his circle had received the COVID-19 vaccine.
The investigation said the false vaccination data had been inserted in the public system by a city hall staffer of the city of Duque de Caxias, outside Rio de Janeiro.
Bolsonaro has always denied any wrongdoing in the case.
Federal police said in its accusation that Bolsonaro’s aide-de-camp, Mauro Cid, told investigators in a plea bargain testimony that the former president had asked him to insert the false data into the system for both himself and his daughter. Cid also said he delivered the vaccination certificates to Bolsonaro personally.
Gonet argued that other sources and documents did not validate that accusation.
During the pandemic, Bolsonaro was among the few world leaders who railed against the vaccine, openly flouting health restrictions and urging other Brazilians to follow suit.
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By MAURICIO SAVARESE
Associated Press
