According to media reports, the police searched the house of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro because of fake vaccination cards. Officials confiscated Bolsonaro’s and his wife Michelle’s cell phones, TV Globo reported. In addition, Bolsonaro’s former adjutant, Lieutenant Colonel Mauro Cid Barbosa, was arrested.
The investigations were directed against a criminal organization that is said to have fed false data into the Ministry of Health’s system, according to the federal police. It was thus possible to issue vaccination certificates for people who were actually not vaccinated and to circumvent the travel restrictions in Brazil and the USA, for example. 16 search warrants and six arrest warrants were issued.
According to TV Globo, among other things, the vaccination data of Bolsonaro, his daughter Laura and his ex-adjutant Cid are said to have been falsified. The right-wing ex-president had repeatedly questioned the danger of the corona virus and the effectiveness of vaccinations during the pandemic. Shortly before his successor Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took office on New Year’s Day, Bolsonaro traveled to the USA and only returned to his home country at the end of March.
“I was never asked for a vaccination card, there is no manipulation on my part. I’m not vaccinated, period, I’ve never denied that,” Bolsonaro told TV Globo after the search. “What can I say? I didn’t get vaccinated. It was a personal choice of mine. My wife’s vaccination card was also photographed, she got vaccinated in the United States. My daughter Laura also didn’t get vaccinated, she has a medical report on it.”
Report G1 Federal Police notification
