BRASILIA — Brazilian police on Wednesday raided former president Jair Bolsonaro’s dwelling and arrested two private aides as a part of an investigation into falsified COVID-19 vaccination data, two sources conversant in the matter stated.
The investigation might reply questions on how Bolsonaro, a strident coronavirus skeptic who vowed by no means to get the COVID-19 vaccine, was registered as vaccinated in well being data made public in February.
The vaccine probe is considered one of many placing the previous far-right chief underneath strain, together with investigations into alleged voter suppression, assaults on the legitimacy of Brazilian elections and embezzlement of overseas presents.
Bolsonaro has denied any wrongdoing. His spokesman and his lawyer didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.
Federal police in an announcement stated they had been serving 16 search warrants and 6 preventive arrest warrants in Brasilia and Rio de Janeiro as a part of the operation however didn’t disclose the names of these focused.
The sources, who requested anonymity to debate an ongoing investigation, stated the operation had arrested Mauro Cid and Max Guilherme, private assistants to Bolsonaro as president who stayed on as his aides when he stepped down in January.
Police stated they had been investigating “false data” allegedly added to a nationwide COVID-19 database between November 2021 and December 2022, when Bolsonaro was president.
“As a result, they were able to issue vaccine certificates and use them to circumvent restrictions imposed by public authorities in Brazil and the United States,” police stated,
The investigation factors to “ideological” causes for circumventing vaccination guidelines, police stated, “in order to keep up a discourse of attacking vaccination against COVID-19.”
“We trust that all legal doubts will be cleared up and it will be proven that Brazil did not commit illegal acts,” wrote Valdemar Costa Neto, the pinnacle of Bolsonaro’s political celebration, on social media. — Reuters
Source: www.gmanetwork.com
