Brazil’s Bar Association wants to bring criminal charges against Bolsonaro for pandemic mismanagement

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Federal Council of the Brazilian Bar Association (OAB) sent a representation to the Federal Prosecutor General Augusto Aras, asking that President Jair Bolsonaro be denounced to the Federal Supreme Court and answer criminally for the “terrible management” of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The OAB charges the president with the crimes of endangering the life or health of others, violation of preventive health measures, irregular use of public funds or income, and malfeasance.

In a document dated Tuesday, March 23rd, the lawyers’ association lists the president’s actions attitudes towards the pandemic, such as encouraging the use of drugs that have no scientifically proven efficacy against Covid-19 and his repeated position against social isolation.

The crime of malfeasance attributed to Bolsonaro is due to the “evident criminal management of the health crisis” caused by the new coronavirus. The OAB highlights the inefficiency and unpreparedness of the federal management of the pandemic, noting also that research indicates that it is “possible to speak of intentional state omission.”

The OAB also alleges that elements that characterize malfeasance – “to delay or to fail to perform, unduly, an official act, or to perform it against the express provision of the law, to satisfy personal interest or feeling” – can be observed in the “terrible management” of the pandemic by the federal government in the purchase of vaccines “due to friction and political-ideological differences, to the detriment of health and the life of all Brazilians.”