The home of Jair Bolsonaro was raided by police on Wednesday over allegations of faked Covid-19 vaccine records, adding to the legal woes facing Brazil’s former president.
Officers served 16 search and seizure warrants along with six arrest warrants on locations in the capital Brasília and Rio de Janeiro as part of the investigation.
Federal police said people who were not immunised obtained vaccination certificates that would have allowed them to circumvent US and Brazilian health restrictions, in what they described as a “criminal association”.
Bolsonaro, who took a dismissive attitude towards vaccines during the coronavirus pandemic and vowed not to get a jab, denied having altered records and reiterated that he was not immunised against Covid-19.
“My wife was vaccinated in the US. My 12-year-old daughter Laura did not take the vaccine. At no moment did I say I took the vaccine,” he told reporters outside his Brasília home.
Bolsonaro said copies were taken of his and his wife’s vaccination records and that his mobile phone was seized. The 68 year-old was expected to be called in for police questioning. “I have nothing to hide about anything,” he said. “There is no tampering on my part”.
The former army captain returned to his homeland at the end of March following three months of self-imposed exile in the US, travelling to Florida to avoid the inauguration of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who defeated him in October’s election.
Almost all travellers to the US require proof of Covid-19 immunisation. Bolsonaro said on Wednesday that he had “never been asked for a vaccine card anywhere”.
The raid is the latest legal headache for the far-right populist since he left power at the end of 2022.
Bolsonaro is facing an investigation into whether he played a role in the storming of government buildings in January by hundreds of his radical supporters, who claimed without evidence that his election loss to Lula was rigged. Bolsonaro was outside the country at the time of the disturbances.
Another probe concerns the alleged gift of expensive jewellery by the Saudi state. Bolsonaro is also subject to inquiries by electoral authorities, which could lead to him being barred from running for office for eight years. He denies wrongdoing in all the cases.
Wednesday’s operations took place under the ambit of a supreme court inquiry into so-called digital militias, alleged criminal organisations spreading misinformation.
In a ruling that granted the warrants, a judge on the country’s top tribunal said there was evidence of “co-ordinated action” to obtain false documents in order to travel abroad.
“The investigation indicates that the group’s objective was to maintain a cohesive identity in relation to its ideological agenda. In this case, backing attacks on vaccination against Covid-19,” said a federal police statement.
Insertion of false data into ministry of health systems occurred between November 2021 and December 2022, it added. The offences can carry a custodial sentence.
Those arrested included a former close aide to Bolsonaro.
The ex-president was defended by the leader of his Liberal party.
“Bolsonaro is a correct, upright person who improved the country and always tried to follow the law. We trust that all the doubts of justice will be clarified and that Bolsonaro did not commit illegalities,” tweeted Valdemar da Costa Neto.
Additional reporting by Carolina Ingizza
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