Federal police say the president committed a crime when he shared false claims about face masks.
of Brazil federal police urge that the president Jair Bolsonaro criminal charges will be brought against him for spreading false information related to the corona pandemic. A British newspaper reported on the matter The Guardian.
More than 680,000 people have died from the coronavirus in Brazil. Since the beginning of the pandemic, Bolsonaro has downplayed the seriousness of the disease, shown doubt towards the instructions of the health authorities and supported unscientific and false cures. He has constantly called the disease the “little flu”.
The Brazilian Congress conducted an investigation into the president’s actions, which ended in October last year. At that time, the federal police were ordered to start an investigation.
On Wednesday, Brazilian media reported that high-level federal police have urged the country’s Supreme Court to indict Bolsonaro for inciting a crime.
The call is related to Bolsonaro’s appearance on a live broadcast in August 2021. In a broadcast broadcast on social media, Bolsonaro falsely claimed that face masks led to many deaths in the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic.
At this time, Brazilian law required the use of face masks.
”[Presidentti] directly, spontaneously and knowingly spread false information that Spanish flu victims had died of mask-induced pneumonia. He planted an idea in the viewers’ minds that weakened their participation in the fight against the corona,” the police report says.
The federal police therefore believe that the president incited Brazilian citizens to break the country’s laws with his speeches.
Bolsonaro also falsely claimed that studies had been conducted in Britain that indicated the development of AIDS related to corona vaccinations. British authorities have denied the claim.
According to the police report, this lie could lead to public “concern about non-existent danger”. It is treated as a violation.
Bolsonaron activities during the corona pandemic is a central question in the country’s presidential elections, the campaigning of which began this week. The first round of voting will take place on October 2.
Left-wing presidential candidate Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has criticized Bolsonaro’s corona measures very harshly.
At his first campaign event on Tuesday, Lula said that Bolsonaro has not “shed a single tear” because of the hundreds of thousands of victims of the corona pandemic. Lula also said that Bolsonaro seemed “possessed by the devil”.
“How many children are now orphans because you didn’t believe and denied medicine?” Lula said, directing his question directly to Bolsonaro.
Far-right Bolsonaro has ruled Brazil since January 2019.