Brazilian police raid Bolsonaro home in fake vaccine certs inquiry

Brazilian police raided the home of former president Jair Bolsonaro on Wednesday as part of a sweeping investigation into forged Covid-19 vaccination records that may have allowed him and his top aides to gain entry into the United States.

Authorities searched more than a dozen homes in Rio de Janeiro and Brasi­lia, arresting six people, including one of Mr Bolsonaro’s closest aides and two of his security guards, who are suspected of tampering with a government vaccination database and issuing falsified records.

The forged vaccine cards may have allowed Mr Bolsonaro and his aides to sidestep US travel restrictions put in place at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, investigators said.

False vaccine certificates may have been issued for Mr Bolsonaro, his 12-year-old daughter, Laura, and other top officials in his administration, according to Brazilian authorities. Police said the vaccination records were forged between November 2021 and December 2022.

How Slovakia’s poisonous politics left prime minister fighting for his life

---

Putin and Xi Jinping stress their shared perception of threat the US poses to their interests

---

‘I don’t think the West really understands’: A Ukrainian writer on his journey from torture camp to the front line

---

Netanyahu refuses to be drawn by Gallant’s Gaza gauntlet

---

On Wednesday, the former president denied ever claiming he had been vaccinated and said US immigration authorities had never asked him to show a vaccination record.

“At no time did I say that I took the vaccine, and I didn’t,” Mr Bolsonaro told reporters in front of his residence in Brasilia after handing over his mobile phone to police. He said that deciding not to take the vaccine was a “personal decision” and he confirmed that his daughter had not been vaccinated either.

Mr Bolsonaro was named as a suspect in the investigation, according to documents released by Brazil’s supreme court on Wednesday. The court said in a decision approving the searches that the investigative connection between the president and a possible crime is “plausible, logical and robust.”

During his time as president, the right-wing Mr Bolsonaro, a staunch critic of Covid shots, consistently dodged questions about whether he was vaccinated against the virus. His vaccination status became such a controversy that, in 2021, Brazil’s congress placed a century-long seal of secrecy on Bolsonaro’s vaccination records.

Crocodiles

Mr Bolsonaro traveled to the United States at least four times during the pandemic, including in September 2021, when he took a delegation to the UN General Assembly in New York. During the trip, he posted a photo of himself and his entourage eating pizza outdoors, setting off speculation over whether the group had been barred from dining indoors because of Covid restrictions.

Mr Bolsonaro was heavily criticized for stalling the purchase of Covid vaccines and for frequently spreading misinformation about them. At one point, he claimed that the jabs could turn Brazilians into crocodiles.

A Brazilian congressional investigation concluded that Mr Bolsonaro should be charged with “crimes against humanity” for his handling of the pandemic, which killed 700,000 people in Brazil. Prosecutors have not pursued those charges. - New York Times