(Opinion) Brazilian federal police have asked the Supreme Court for approval to indict President Jair Bolsonaro for spreading false information and discouraging wearing a mask.
The charges against Bolsonaro came a few days ago, just before the official opening of Brazil’s presidential campaign.
Like Donald Trump, Bolsonaro, one of the loudest voices against globalization, seems to be prevented from becoming President again at any cost.
One of Jair Bolsonaro’s main campaign themes is his opposition to what many call the Covid health dictatorship and his focus on people’s livelihoods.
The accusations against Bolsonaro stem from an investigation launched at the request of Brazilian Senator Omar Aziz, who chairs the Senate’s “Covid Committee” (Covid CPI).
This commission had been investigating allegations against the government regarding handling the pandemic. In reality, Bolsonaro was the real target from the beginning.
In early 2021, some 30 senators, the majority in opposition to the Bolsonaro administration, submitted a petition to the President of the Senate calling for a CPI to investigate (mis)management and omissions by the federal government in fighting the coronavirus pandemic.
The creation of this Covid CPI was and still is a unique process, unparalleled in the world.
The commission was created in April 2021 and concluded its investigation in October of that year. It recommended nine charges against Bolsonaro and even accused him of “crimes against humanity.”
Five of the nine charges were dismissed by prosecutors on July 27.
Brazilian police are pressing charges against the incumbent President over a video Bolsonaro posted on social media last October in which he addressed a link between COVID vaccines and the risk of AIDS.
YouTube and Facebook blocked the video shortly after that.
Brazilian website G1 published a purported transcript of Bolsonaro’s words from the video:
“I will only share information; I will not comment. I have spoken out in the past, and I have been attacked many times. Here it is: official reports from the British government suggest that the fully vaccinated – who are the fully vaccinated? Those who have already had their second dose 15 days will get AIDS much sooner than expected.”
On October 27, 2021, Bolsonaro gave an interview to Jovem Pan News in which he stated that he had not made a connection between vaccines and AIDS but merely cited information published on the website of the journal Exame.
Exame cited a study in the journal The Lancet that said vaccines could increase the risk of HIV infection:
“I referred to an article in the journal Exame; I didn’t make anything up,” the President said.
After Bolsonaro’s video was banned, Exame published a clarification stating that there is no evidence of a link between AIDS and vaccines.
According to the newspaper O Globo, the Federal Police believe that Bolsonaro’s remarks led Brazilians not to comply with health vaccination regulations.
Bolsonaro’s crime would thus be:
“Alarming third parties by announcing a non-existent danger.”
The Brazilian Penal Code provides three to six months in prison or a fine.
A link between AIDS and the Covid mRNA vaccines is not only plausible but probable according to current knowledge, as can be read here.
The police report also accuses Bolsonaro of discouraging the wearing of masks. It refers to an October 2021 video, also banned, in which the President claims masks were responsible for numerous deaths during the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic.
Bolsonaro refused to wear a mask but was forced to do so by a federal decree in July 2020.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, the Brazilian President has appealed to his people not to fall prey to COVID hysteria and to continue their everyday lives.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, in a public address Tuesday, once again denounced the global “hysteria” over the coronavirus and called on his people to return to everyday life and work as soon as possible.
The police action against Bolsonaro was announced a day after launching his campaign for the October 2 elections.
One of his primary challengers is the country’s former socialist President, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Although convicted, he was allowed to run in 2022 after the Supreme Court, called by many left-wing activist, overturned the charges against him in 2021.
The fact that this almost magical reversal of the verdict occurred at all may want to be the subject of an independent commission of inquiry at some point, as many voices claim that things did not go by the book.