MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Police raid Bolsonaro's home in Covid-19 vax card probe

“I did not take the vaccine and that's the end of it,” Bolsonaro told reporters

Brazilian Federal Police Wednesday morning raided Jair Bolsonaro's home in Brasilia and seized the former President's mobile phone and other evidence in a probe into allegations that the retired Army captain had falsified his Covid-19 vaccination certificate to enter the United States, which he denied.

Bolsonaro is said to have tampered with Brazilian Health Ministry records to include false vaccination data.

”With that, these people were able to issue the respective vaccination certificates and use them to circumvent the current sanitary restrictions imposed by public authorities (Brazil and the United States) aimed at preventing the spread of contagious diseases, in this case, the covid pandemic,“ read a statement from the Federal Police.

Issuing 16 search and 6 arrest warrants was Supreme Federal Court Justice Alexandre De Moraes. Various former and current aides of Bolsonaro's were detained.

According to local media, the false entries into Bolsonaro's vaccination card occurred in November 2021 and December 2022, before Bolsonaro's trip to the United States on December 30, two days before leaving office.

Bolsonaro has denied both having been immunized against Covid and having falsified the data on his vaccination certificate. ”I was never asked for the vaccination certificate anywhere and there is no adulteration on my part. I did not take the vaccine and that's the end of it. I never denied that” he told reporters in front of his residence in Brasília.

He admitted, though, that his wife Michelle was vaccinated during a trip to the United States in September 2021 with Janssen's single-dose drug.

Bolsonaro had been summoned by the Federal Police to testify this Wednesday, after the raid on his residence, but his lawyers have managed to postpone this procedure, arguing that they have not yet had access to the records of the process.