Brazil’s Bolsonaro is indicted for first time over alleged falsification of his own vaccination data

Brazil's Federal Police indict former President Bolsonaro for falsifying COVID-19 vaccination data, facing potential jail time and political persecution.

Brazil's Federal Police have accused former President Jair Bolsonaro of criminal association and falsifying his own COVID-19 vaccination data, marking the first indictment for the embattled far-right leader with others potentially in store.

The Supreme Court released the police's indictment on March 19 that alleges Bolsonaro and 16 others inserted false information into the public health database to make it appear as though the then-president, his 12-year-old daughter and several others in his circle had received the COVID-19 vaccine.

During the pandemic, Mr. Bolsonaro was one of the few world leaders railing against the vaccine, openly flouting health restrictions and encouraging society to follow his example.

His administration ignored several emails from pharmaceutical company Pfizer offering to sell Brazil tens of millions of shots in 2020 and openly criticized a move by Sao Paulo state's then-Gov. João Doria to buy vaccines from Chinese company Sinovac when no jabs were otherwise available.

Brazil's prosecutor-general's office will have the final say on whether to use the police indictment to file charges against Bolsonaro at the Supreme Court. It stems from one of several investigations targeting Bolsonaro, who governed between 2019 and 2022.

Mr. Bolsonaro's lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press. The former president denied any wrongdoing during questioning in May 2023.

Police accuse Bolsonaro and his aides of tampering with the health ministry's database shortly before he travelled to the US in December 2022, two months after he lost his reelection bid to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.