MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Prosecution wants vax certificate case against Bolsonaro dropped

There is not enough evidence that Bolsonaro ordered Cid to include false vaccination data in the Health Ministry's system, the prosecution argued

Brazil's Attorney General Paulo Gonet requested the shelving of an investigation into former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro's alleged fraud in his Covid-19 vaccination records. The prosecution concluded there was insufficient evidence to prove Bolsonaro instructed his aide, Mauro Cid, to falsify vaccination data in the Health Ministry's system, despite the former aide-de-camp claims in a plea bargain. As per Brazilian law, corroborating evidence is needed beyond a collaborator’s testimony.

The investigation was launched after false vaccination data for Bolsonaro and his daughter was detected in December 2022 and later removed. There is no proof that these fake certificates were ever used, although Bolsonaro is believed to have needed it to travel to the United States when it was still an entry requirement.

Brazil's Federal Supreme Court (STF), which earlier this week ruled Bolsonaro must stand trial for the alleged Jan. 8, 2023, attempted coup d'état, will now decide whether to close this case, which sparked controversy given the weight Cid's testimony carried in the uprising charges.

According to Gonet, there is not enough evidence that the former president actually asked Cid to include false vaccination data in the Ministry's system.

The law “prohibits the receipt of a complaint that is based 'solely on the statements of the collaborator'; hence the jurisprudence of the Court requires that the collaborator's information be ratified by other evidence, in order for the complaint to be filed,” the prosecution explained.

On Dec. 21, 2022, the investigation concluded that false data about Bolsonaro's vaccination and that of his then underaged daughter was included in the Health Ministry's records and deleted a few days later.

”Absent elements that justify holding Jair Messias Bolsonaro and [Congressman] Gutemberg Reis de Oliveira responsible for the crimes of inserting false data into information systems (art. 313-A of the Penal Code), I move that the investigation be closed with regard to these two investigated parties,” Gonet argued.

Others indicted by the Federal Police (PF), such as Cid and his wife, Gabriela Cid, will be investigated by a lower court, as none of them elicits the STF's original jurisdiction.