Ex-Brazilian leader Jair Bolsonaro accused of falsifying his Covid vaccine data

Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro has been accused of falsifying his Covid-19 vaccination data in the first indictment for the embattled far-right leader.

The federal police indictment released by the Supreme Court alleged that Bolsonaro and 16 others 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 vaccine.

Police detective Fabio Alvarez Shor, who signed the indictment, said in his report that Bolsonaro and his aides changed their vaccination records in order to “issue their respective (vaccination) certificates and use them to cheat current health restrictions”.

“The investigation found several false insertions between November 2021 and December 2022, and also many actions of using fraudulent documents,” Mr Shor added.

During the pandemic, Bolsonaro was one of the few world leaders who railed against the vaccine, openly flouting health restrictions and encouraging other Brazilians to follow his example.

His administration ignored several offers from pharmaceutical company Pfizer to sell Brazil tens of millions of shots in 2020, and he openly criticised a move by Sao Paulo state’s governor to buy vaccines from Chinese company Sinovac when no other doses were available.

Brazil’s prosecutor-general’s office will have the final say on whether to use the indictment to file charges against Bolsonaro at the Supreme Court. The case stems from one of several investigations targeting Bolsonaro, who governed between 2019 and 2022.

Bolsonaro lawyer Fabio Wajngarten called his client’s indictment “absurd” and said he did not have access to it.

“When he was president, he was completely exonerated from showing any kind of certificate on his trips. This is a political persecution and an attempt to void the enormous political capital that has only grown,” Mr Wajngarten said.

The former president denied any wrongdoing during questioning in May 2023.

Police accuse Bolsonaro and his aides of tampering with the health ministry’s database shortly before he travelled to the US in December 2022, two months after he lost his re-election bid to Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Bolsonaro needed a certificate of vaccination to enter the US, 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.

If convicted for falsifying health data, the 68-year-old politician could spend up to 12 years behind bars or as little as two years, according to legal analyst Zilan Costa. The maximum jail time for a charge of criminal association is four years.

“What Bolsonaro will argue in this case is whether he did insert the data or enable others to do it, or not. And that is plain simple: either you have the evidence or you don’t. It is a very serious crime with a very harsh sentence for those convicted,” Mr Costa told The Associated Press.

Mr Shor also said he is awaiting information from the US Justice Department to “clarify whether those under investigation did make use of the false vaccination certificates upon their arrival and stay in American territory”.

If so, further charges could be levelled against Bolsonaro, Mr Shor wrote.

Bolsonaro retains staunch allegiance among his political base, as shown by an outpouring of support last month, when an estimated 185,000 people clogged Sao Paulo’s main boulevard to decry what they — and the former president — characterise as political persecution.

Brazil’s top electoral court has already ruled Bolsonaro ineligible to run for office until 2030, on the grounds that he abused his power during the 2022 campaign and cast unfounded doubts on the country’s electronic voting system.

Gleisi Hoffmann, chairwoman of the Workers’ Party, whose candidate defeated Bolsonaro, celebrated his indictment on social media.

She said she hopes the former president stands trial in many other cases, including for his alleged attempt to sneak three million dollars (£2.36 million) in diamond jewellery into the country and the sale of two luxury watches he received as gifts from Saudi Arabia while in office.

“He has lied until this day about his nefarious administration, but now he will have to face the truth in the courts.

“The federal police’s indictment sent to prosecutors is just the first of several,” Ms Hoffmann said. “What is up now, Big Coward? Are you going to face this or run away to Miami?”