1 of 2 | Former President of Brazil Jair Bolsonaro appears at the UN General Assembly's 77th session General Debate at U.N. Headquarters in New York City in September 2022. File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI |
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March 19 (UPI) -- Authorities in Brazil on Tuesday recommended that criminal charges be filed against former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro for allegedly falsifying his proof of COVID-19 vaccination prior to visiting the United States.
Federal police in Brazil raided Bolsonaro's mansion May 2023 and arrested multiple aides in the alleged 2022 scheme to forge his COVID-19 vaccination card and that of his teenage daughter, Laura, during his four-year presidency in South America's largest country in order for them to gain entry into the United States during what was not an official state visit.
It was reported that a computer IP address in Brazil's presidential palace had been used to print the fraudulent vaccination cards before Bolsonaro's 2022 trip to the United States, which only granted entry to vaccinated individuals at the time.
Bolsonaro has denied these allegations. The former president's defense attorney, Fabio Wajngarten, called the indictment "absurd" while saying the legal effort against Bolsonaro -- a noted anti-vaccine advocate who faces years in a Brazilian jail if convicted -- was a "political persecution" while asserting that his client was immune from the 2022 pandemic restrictions in place at the time.
"Furthermore, while serving as president, he was completely exempt from presenting any type of certificate on his trips," he said on social media.
A Brazilian police report obtained by The Washington Post indicates that Bolsonaro had a direct tie to the alleged fraud and that a former top aide for Bolsonaro admitted to being given an order by the then-president to falsify the record.
This is not the first time he has faced allegations of impropriety or for spreading false or misleading information. But it is the first time Bolsonaro, 68, has come close to possibly facing criminal charges in the country where he is forbidden from running for political office until 2030. He also faces allegations of an attempted coup.
An October 2021 report by Brazil's congress recommended that Bolsonaro be charged with "crimes against humanity" for letting the COVID-19 virus ravage the South American nation in a failed bid to achieve herd immunity.
That was followed two months later in December by a Brazilian Supreme Court decision to investigate his false claims that receiving a COVID-19 vaccination can increase the risk of contracting AIDS.
"With this, these people were able to emit their respective certificates and then use them to undermine sanitation restrictions," the Brazilian police reported obtained by the Post stated.
