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The Brazilian Federal Police searched this Wednesday, May 3, the residence of former President Jair Bolsonaro and confiscated his mobile phone, in the midst of an investigation into the alleged falsification of Covid-19 vaccination certificates. The authorities arrested six people in the framework of this investigation, including Colonel Mauro Cid, one of the closest allies of the controversial former head of state. Bolsonaro disassociated himself from suspicion by pointing out that he has “nothing to hide.”
One more investigation puts the former president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, under the magnifying glass.
The Federal Police searched his home and confiscated his mobile phone, in the framework of an investigation into alleged false certificates of vaccination against Covid-19.
The investigation tries to clarify how Bolsonaro, a skeptic of the pandemic who swore that he would never receive a vaccine against that virus, appears as an immunized person in the health records, which were made public last February.
Authorities are investigating “false information” in a national database, allegedly added between November 2021 and December 2022, when Bolsonaro was president.
The inquiries underscore that both the vaccination data of the ex-president and of several of his relatives and advisers would have been manipulated to obtain authorization to enter the United States.
“As a result, they were able to issue vaccination certificates and use them to circumvent the restrictions imposed by public authorities in Brazil and the United States,” the police institution said.
“I do not have anything to hide”
When questioned about the raid this Wednesday, Bolsonaro reiterated that he has never been vaccinated against the virus and denied any link to the alleged falsification of documents.
“They never asked me for the vaccination certificate anywhere (…) For my part, there was nothing faked. I did not take the vaccine. Period,” she argued.
The Liberal Party, to which the former president belongs, expressed its support for the former president in a message broadcast through his social networks. “We trust that all legal doubts will be clarified and it will be shown that Bolsonaro did not commit illegal acts,” said Valdemar Costa Neto, leader of that political group.
The police operation, which took place in Brasilia and Rio de Janeiro, was authorized by Supreme Court magistrate Alexandre de Moraes.
Six former Bolsonaro collaborators arrested
The home of the controversial ex-president was not the only place where the authorities looked for possible evidence. The Police indicated that in total they complied with 16 search warrants and arrested six people.
Among them, Colonel Mauro Cid and Max Guilherme, who served as Bolsonaro’s personal assistants during his Administration and continued to work for him after his term ended.
During the pandemic, the former head of state caused a stir due to his denialism and lax measures against the virus, decisions that led Brazil to be one of the most affected countries during the early stages of the health emergency.
This investigation is added to other open cases against the far-right leader. He is also being investigated for embezzlement of foreign donations, questioning the result of the October 2022 presidential elections and attacks on the legitimacy of those elections after thousands of his supporters stormed the headquarters of the three powers of the country: Congress, the Presidency and the Supreme Court, on January 8.
The Bolsonaristas demanded aA military intervention to remove Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva from the Executive after alleging an alleged fraud in the voting in which Bolsonaro unsuccessfully sought re-election.
A fact that recalled the unprecedented assault on the Capitol in the United States, on January 6, 2021, after Donald Trump used a similar speech against the current president Joe Biden.
With Reuters and EFE
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