Brazil: Jair Bolsonaro’s home searched as part of investigation into fake vaccination certificates

Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who has long downplayed the extent and impact of the pandemic in his country, confirmed on Wednesday that his home in Brasilia had been raided by federal police as part of an investigation into alleged falsification of COVID-19 vaccination certificates. but denied any theft or falsification of documents.

“I was surprised by this search (…) I did not falsify anything. I haven’t been vaccinated, that’s all,” the former head of state (2019-2022) told reporters outside his residence in the Brazilian capital. According to the Reuters news agency, the ex-president’s phone was seized. Brazilian media claim that investigators have also found his wife.

A total of sixteen searches were carried out in Rio and Brazil.

Without mentioning Jair Bolsonaro’s name, the federal police first explained that they carried out a total of 16 raids in Rio de Janeiro and Brazil targeting a “criminal network” suspected of “injecting false Covid vaccination data into public health systems” . “. According to media reports, Mauro Cid, a former aide-de-camp to the president, was arrested in connection with a police operation.

False vaccination certificates “were used to circumvent medical restrictions imposed by government agencies in Brazil and the United States,” can also be read in the press release.

Defeated in the October presidential election, he then spent three months in the United States, leaving Brazil two days before the inauguration of his leftist successor, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The vaccination certificate was still required to enter the United States during this stay. The US government announced on Monday that this obligation will be lifted from May 11th.

Since his return to Brazil at the end of March, Jair Bolsonaro has been interrogated twice by federal police. The first hearing took place on April 5 in the case of the smuggling of jewelry into Brazil offered by Saudi Arabia, and the second last week as part of an investigation into his alleged role in the January 8 riots in Brasilia, when the seats of power were looted by people who refused to recognize Lula’s election.