Brazilian senators
have voted to recommend that President Jair Bolsonaro be charged for his
handling of the COVID-19 pandemic after the South American country’s Senate
panel backed a report calling for charges against the president including those
of “crimes against humanity”, after 600,000 people died of the coronavirus. The
findings of the panel will be sent to the chief prosecutor, a person appointed
by the president himself.

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While there is no
guarantee that the vote of senators will lead to actual criminal charges, the
report will now go to Prosecutor General Augusto Aras. Political observers say
Aras is expected to support the President.

What does the
report state?

The report
ascribing blame on President Jair Bolsonaro alleges that the government’s
coronavirus policy allowed the pandemic to spread through the country in a bid
to attain herd immunity. The report describes the Brazilian President as the
main person responsible for the errors committed by the federal government in
course of the pandemic.

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The report has
been authored by Senator Renan Calheiros, a centrist politician, who has called
for Jair Bolsonaro to be charged with “crimes against humanity” holding him
responsible for the deaths in the country. COVID-19 fatalities in Brazil are
only second to that of the United States. Calheiros, in his report, has sought
that Bolsonaro be taken to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The report also
accuses Jair Bolsonaro of misusing public funds and spreading fake news about
the pandemic.

What happens
if the ICC takes up the case?

Brazil is a party
to the Rome Statute, the statute that led to the creation of the ICC, so the
court could take up the case. On the chance that
the International Criminal Court takes up the charges against Bolsonaro, it
will initiate a long and arduous process through with the court will decide on
the merits of the case.