Brazilian ex-president Jair Bolsonaro’s home searched over ‘fake Covid vaccine cards’
Brazil’s federal police searched former president Jair Bolsonaro’s home and seized his phone in an investigation into fake Covid vaccine cards.
His house in Brasilia, and several other locations, were raided on Wednesday with six people facing arrest, including one of Bolsonaro’s closest allies Mauro Cid.
Bolsonaro was outspoken about his opposition to the jab throughout the pandemic and advertised that he refused to get it.
But he attended the UN’s General Assembly in New York in September 2021, when travellers were required to be fully vaccinated, and there was much speculation about whether Bolsonaro had caved and said yes to the vaccine.
After this week’s search, Bolsonaro told reporters: ‘There was no adulteration on my part, it didn’t happen. I didn’t take the vaccine, period. I never denied that.
In an interview for Jovem Pan television, Bolsonaro added that his vaccination records were not required for any of his trips to the US.
He said: ‘The way heads of state are treated is different than for the common citizen.
‘Everything is arranged ahead of time, and in my travels to the United States, I was not at any time required to have a vaccination card.’
This is just the latest in a string of legal headaches for the former president who has been questioned twice at the Federal Police’s headquarters in the past month alone.
In a series of seperate investigations, Bolsonaro has been quizzed over three sets of diamond jewellery he received from Saudi Arabia, and his potential role in sparking the January 8 uprising by his supporters in the capital.
He is also the subject of several investigations by Brazil’s electoral court into his actions during the presidential election campaign, particularly his unsubstantiated claims that the nation’s electronic voting system is susceptible to fraud.
Those threaten to strip him of his political rights and render him unable to run for office in upcoming elections.
Separately, Bolsonaro and his allies also face a sprawling Supreme Court-led investigation regarding the spread of alleged falsehoods and disinformation in Brazil.
On top of this, they are the subject of a federal police investigation for the alleged genocide of the Indigenous Yanomami people in the Amazon rainforest by encouraging illegal miners to invade their territory and thereby endangering their lives.
The former president has denied wrongdoing in all of the cases under investigation.
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