Strongly criticized since the start of the pandemic for its management of the coronavirus crisis which has
more than 600,000 dead in his country, Jair Bolsonaro is now at risk of being charged. At the end of six months of investigation, hearings and sometimes explosive revelations, the commission of inquiry of the Brazilian Senate (ICC) requested the indictment of the president for at least ten crimes, including “crime against the humanity ”. The ICC’s indictment request also applies to around sixty people. Among them, four ministers, two ex-ministers and the three eldest sons of President Bolsonaro for “incitement to crime” through the dissemination of false information.
This parliamentary commission ensures in its report of nearly 1.2000 pages to have “gathered evidence which shows that the federal government (…) acted slowly in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, deliberately exposing the population to a real risk of infection massive “. Made up of senators from various political stripes, the ICC delivered a verdict that was devastating for the image of the head of state, also calling for his indictment for “charlatanism” or “prevarication”.
“Intentional” crimes
The ICC – described by Bolsonaro as a “masquerade” – has been the scene of eventful hearings, with moving testimonies and chilling revelations about experiments on “human guinea pigs” with ineffective remedies. For the senators, the crimes cited in the report are “intentional”, the Bolsonaro government having deliberately decided not to take the necessary measures to contain the circulation of the virus.
Extremely serious accusations, which should nevertheless have an especially symbolic scope for the time being, the far-right president benefiting from support in Parliament able to prevent him from opening an impeachment procedure. Likewise, Attorney General Augusto Aras, an ally of Jair Bolsonaro, can block any indictment.
Bolsonaro’s indictment unlikely
“This report is an instrument of revenge against Bolsonaro and his family, it is obvious that neither my brothers, nor I, and even less the president, did not commit the least crime”, declared the senator Flavio Bolsonaro, elder siblings, shortly before the presentation of the text. The ICC does not have the power to initiate legal proceedings itself, but its revelations could have a considerable political impact, as polls already show Jair Bolsonaro losing to left-wing ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva one year away from the presidential election.
The report will be sent to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, which has sole jurisdiction to indict those accused by the ICC. In the case of Jair Bolsonaro, specialists consider this indictment unlikely, since it is the responsibility of the Attorney General.
Never “tears of compassion”
After the hearings of several ministers, senior officials or leaders of hospitals and companies, the ICC took a more human turn on Monday, with testimonies from families of Covid-19 victims. “We deserve an apology from the highest authority in the state (President Bolsonaro). It is not a question of politics. We’re talking about lives, ”said taxi driver Márcio Antônio Silva, who lost his 25-year-old son, on the verge of tears.
“What we have seen is the antithesis of what we could expect from a President of the Republic. We have never seen him shed tears of compassion or express his condolences for the Brazilian people in mourning, ”Antônio Carlos Costa, president of Rio de Paz, an NGO, told the ICC.
Suspicion of corruption in the procurement of vaccines
The ICC has investigated the government’s responsibilities in the serious oxygen shortage that has caused the death of dozens of patients by asphyxiation in Manaus (north), Jair Bolsonaro’s anti-confinement speech and his denial of the severity of the Covid, a “Grippette”. The government is also pinned for delays and suspicions of corruption in the procurement of vaccines.
The Commission also looked into the relationship between Brasilia and private health mutuals accused of promoting “early treatment”, in particular with hydroxychloroquine, the ineffectiveness of which has been scientifically proven. One of them, Prevent Senior, is suspected of having carried out experiments with this type of treatment without the knowledge of her patients, and of having pressured her doctors to prescribe them to “human guinea pigs”.