BRAZILIAN Police raided the mansion of former President Jair Bolsonaro in Brasilia as part of their operation of more than a dozen of searches connected to a probe into the falsification of COVID-19 vaccine certificates in his administration.
Brazilian authorities said they searched through 16 properties in Brasilia and Rio de Janeiro.
Brazilian media citing the police said authorities also made 6 arrests of suspected members of what they call a ‘criminal network’, believed to have inserted false COVID-19 vaccination information into public health systems.
The 6 arrests and detention include Bolsonaro’s close aides and security guards.
Among the arrested was Lieutenant Colonel Mauro Cid Barbosa.
Two of Bolsonaro’s security guards were also taken into custody.
Meanwhile, the police reportedly seized Bolsonaro’s phone at his residence in Brasilia and were obliged to hand over the password after he initially resisted.
Bolsonaro had also initially been expected to be questioned later on Wednesday.
However, he was reportedly refusing to appear before the police.
Brazil’s Federal Police believe that a series of official COVID-19 vaccination records were falsified on the Health Ministry database in order to produce fake vaccination certificates that would allow international travel, including to the United States.
And the supposedly falsified COVID-19 vaccination records include those of Bolsonaro, his 12-year-old daughter named Laura, and Mauro Cid Barbosa and his family.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Brazilian Supreme Court issued documents in which Bolsonaro was named as a suspect in the case and said the connection between the former president and a potential crime is plausible, logical, and robust.
Meanwhile, the former president denied the allegations.
Following the search, Bolsonaro talked to journalists and said he was surprised by what happened and confirmed that the police had taken his phone.
“I didn’t get the vaccine. I was never asked for a vaccination card [to enter the us]. There is no fraud on my part. I didn’t take the vaccine, period,” said Jair Bolsonaro, Former President of Brazil.
It can be remembered that during his presidency, Bolsonaro promised that he would never get vaccinated against COVID-19.
Still, the media in February reported that he was listed as ‘vaccinated’ in the health records.
Bolsonaro lost to President Lula da Silva in the presidential elections held last year, he then left for the United States in late December and skipped Lula’s inauguration in January of this year.
Bolsonaro stayed in Florida for three months and returned to Brazil in March.
