All eyes on Brazil’s legal system as Bolsonaro faces a Covid reckoning

A damning report on the Brazilian president’s disastrous handling of the pandemic pushes attention on whether lawyers will now go after Jair Bolsonaro

The criminal charges submitted against Mr Bolsonaro could carry a maximum sentence of 78 years behind bars (Reuters)

The head of the Brazilian Senate committee that claims Jair Bolsonaro should be charged with crimes against humanity and imprisoned for his handling of the coronavirus crisis which has killed over 600,000 Brazilians has said he believes charges will be laid against the right-wing president.

Omar Aziz, the president of the Covid parliamentary commission, toldThe Independent that he expects the country’s attorney general to proceed with charges.

There have been some concerns that the attorney general, Augusto Aras, a Bolsonaro appointee who has strong ties to the president might not pursue charges, despite the gravity of the findings by the commission.

But Mr Aziz says that won’t be the case.

“There is no way that the federal public prosecutor’s office won’t open an investigation. We’re talking about 600,000 deaths and countless other people affected. Crimes against humanity are incredibly serious”, he said.

The charge of crimes against humanity is connected to what the report describes as the Bolsonaro government’s “deliberate neglect” of the indigneous population in the Amazon that ravaged its communities and caused the death of hundreds of tribal elders.

Opposition senator Radolfe Rodrigues, the vice-president of the congressional inquiry, has said that the criminal charges submitted against Mr Bolsonaro could carry a maximum sentence of 78 years behind bars.

The commission’s findings were made public earlier this week.

Last Wednesday, Renan Calheiros, the senator who oversaw the Covid-19 inquiry, presented a long-awaited and scathing 1,180-page report after six months of widely televised testimonies from Brazil’s four health ministers, Bolsonaro allies, companies, health officials and families, that have gripped and at times paralysed the country.

There is no way that the federal public prosecutor’s office won’t open an investigation. We’re talking about 600,000 deaths

Omar Aziz, president of Brazil's Covid parliamentary commission

The draft report, a copy of which has been seen by The Independent, also accuses Mr Bolsonaro of intentional propagation of the virus in a failed attempt to reach herd immunity, incitement to crime, and trying to peddle unproven scientific remedies like the dewormer drug invertemin.

The report is also set to recommend 69 other people and companies face criminal charges, including several government figures, companies and three of Mr Bolsonaro’s sons – the former of which are accused of encouraging crimes by producing “fake news” propaganda and publicly endorsing early Covid-19 treatments with no scientific basis.

Due to record unemployment levels, inflation in double digits and a country that is home to the world’s second highest Covid-19 death toll after the US, Mr Bolsonaro has seen his popularity dwindle in recent months.

Opinion polls show that former leftist president Luiz Inacio da Silva, the president’s political rival, would beat Mr Bolsonaro by a wide margin if they both run in next year’s presidential elections. Analysts say that the probe could be further politically damaging for the president.

Protesters in Brasilia wear masks representing President Bolsonaro painted as a skull during a demonstration rejecting the government's handling of the pandemic (EPA)

Former army captain Mr Bolsonaro has tried to shrug off the findings, saying he is unworried by the inquiry and has denounced it as politically motivated.

“We know that we are not guilty of absolutely anything,” the president said during a speech in the city of Russas, in the northeastern state of Ceara.

The senate committee cannot open lawsuits against Mr Bolsonaro but senators can propose charges to the attorney general. And the president has legal immunity – at least for now.

Despite legal experts claiming that “extremely serious and unjust” crimes were committed during the pandemic, Brazilian presidents are legally protected from criminal charges while in office. But should Mr Bolsonaro be impeached or lose the 2022 elections if he runs, then he risks facing trial, Bernardo Fenelon, a criminal lawyer in Brasilia, told The Independent.

The lawyer says that given pressure from the senate and public opinion, it’s probable that the prosecutor Mr Aras will pursue the charges.

“It’s likely that he will follow on with a formal and technical investigation based upon the claims brought by the report”, he said.

Brazil’s lower house speaker, Artur Lira, would also have to approve the accusations against the president.

An investigation of the charges could also lead to a potential request for an impeachment process against Mr Bolsonaro – though that outcome seems unlikely given that Lira is an ally of the president and has been sitting on hundreds of impeachment requests that have yet to be taken up.

Protesters lie on the ground to represent coronavirus fatalities during a demonstration against the president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro (EPA)

In any case, the document has said that the allegations of crimes against humanity will be sent to the international criminal court in The Hague, where if charged, he could face up to five years prison time. Legal experts have warned however that due to The Hague being highly meticulous and critical, any process “could take years”.

Antonio Carlos de Almeida Castro, a criminal lawyer who has worked for a number of investigated politicians and called for the senate commission to include homicide charges against the president in the final report, told The Independent that in addition to The Hague, the Brazilian senate committee will consider all other legal options possible, including the federal police and Supreme Court.

Carlos de Alemida Castro has also proposed a change in the Brazilian legislature to “eliminate the imperial powers” of Brazil’s lower house speaker and attorney general, who can solely decide whether to file impeachment or criminal charges.

“It’s as though they have more power than the country’s highest federal courts,” he said.

“The commission probe has enormous power, but the final report is received by the lower house speaker. He has the possibility to simply not present it and not take a possible impeachment process forward”.