Jair Bolsonaro
The Brazilian Attorney General (PGR) opened this Thursday a preliminary investigation into the alleged crimes committed during the covid-19 pandemic by 13 politicians, including Jair Bolsonaro.
At issue is the report of the Parliamentary Inquiry Commission (CPI) on alleged failures and crimes committed during the management of the pandemic in Brazil, delivered this Wednesday to the Attorney General of the Republic, Augusto Aras, who is responsible for analyzing the accusations against Jair Bolsonaro and the remaining 12 people with privileged jurisdiction – a right given in the country to some authorities who hold public positions, allowing them to not be tried by the common justice.
The decision of the PGR to open the preliminary investigation, in the format of “factual news”, is considered routine in this kind of cases.
According to the magazine Look, in the internal order signed on Thursday night, Aras ordered his team to raise all the related procedures that already exist in the body, in the Federal Supreme Court (STF) and in the Superior Court of Justice (STF), related to the 13 authorities with privileged jurisdiction cited in the report.
Among the various internal measures that dictated in the order, the PGR also determined the sharing of the evidence delivered by the CPI with all prosecutors in the country who are responsible for processes related to the pandemic.
It is now up to the PGR to decide whether to file the indictment requests made by the CPI, whether to initiate an investigation or whether to pursue the accusations.
The final version of the CPI report, with 1279 pages, contains 80 requests for indictment, among them by Jair Bolsonaro, for the nine crimes: malfeasance crimes; quackery; epidemic resulting in death; infringement of preventive sanitary measures; irregular employment of public funds; incitement to crime; falsification of private documents; crime of responsibility and crimes against humanity.
The vice president of the CPI, Randolfe Rodrigues, indicated that the senators will remain “vigilant” in relation to the role of the Attorney General of the Republic.
“We will take the necessary measures, as the head of the Federal Public Ministry must be the defender of the rights of the Brazilian people and not the Government on duty. We will be vigilant”, warned the senator, referring to the doubts that exist in the opposition in relation to Aras, who accuses him of being silent in the face of alleged crimes committed by Bolsonaro.
