A Brazilian congressional panel is set to recommend mass murder charges against President Jair Bolsonaro who has been under fire over his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Bolsonaro and other government officials have been been blamed for allowing coronavirus to spread among the country’s population in the hopes of herd immunity.
A leaked report of the congressional investigation blames the Bolsonaro administration’s policies for more than half of Brazil’s 600,000 coronavirus deaths, according to CNN.
Brazi’s COVID-19 death toll is the highest in the world after the United States.
The panel also recommends criminal charges against 69 other people, including three of Bolsonaro’s sons.
Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro says questions on COVID deaths bore him
The Brazilian Senate Pandemic Parliamentary Inquiry (CPI) told CNN the nearly 1,200-page document is expected to be officially discussed in the Brazilian Senate on Wednesday.
Bolsonaro has previously criticised the probe as politically motivated.
On October 11, he blamed COVID-19 protocols at soccer matches for a missed game.
“Why a vaccine passport? I wanted to watch Santos now and they said I needed to be vaccinated. Why should that be?” Bolsonaro told journalists near Santos. Last week, he confirmed having decided not to get vaccinated, saying he had the “highest immunization.” Since testing positive in July 2020, Bolsonaro has boasted several times about the large number of antibodies he has developed to fight the virus.
He has also raised the possibility of people turning into crocodiles due to side effects of the Pfizer vaccine besides touting several drugs such as hydroxychloroquine and proxalutamide as miracle treatments for coronavirus.
In July, YouTube said removed videos from Bolsonaro’s channel for spreading misinformation about the coronavirus outbreak,
Last year, both Twitter and Facebook took down videos of Bolsonaro for breaching their terms of use.
Bolsonaro has also been criticised abroad for his refusal to get vaccinated, particularly during his New York trip in September for the UN General Assembly.
