Brazil’s senate to recommend criminal indictment on Bolsonaro over bungled Covid response

Recommended charges also include misuse of public funds and “prevarication”, which entails delaying or refraining from action required as part of a public official’s duty for reasons of personal interest

Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro could face charges over the country’s disastrous response to Covid (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

A Senate report to be presented on Wednesday will recommend that President Jair Bolsonaro be indicted on criminal charges for allegedly bungling Brazil’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and pushing the country’s death toll to second-highest in the world.

The report, which is based on six months of work by the committee, calls for Bolsonaro to be indicted on nine charges, from charlatanism and inciting crime all the way up to crimes against humanity, according to two members of the committee that has been investigating the government’s handling of the pandemic.