The home of former President Jair Bolsonaro was searched by Brazil’s Federal Police in an investigation into fake Covid-19 vaccine cards.
Bolsonaro confirmed the police search, as did his wife, Michelle, on her instagram account.
Bolsonaro’s phone was also seized in the police probe, but his wife said hers was not.
A federal police official speaking on condition of anonymity said Bolsonaro would be deposed at Federal Police headquarters. The police official further confirmed that one of Bolsonaro’s closest allies, Mauro Cid, had been arrested.
According to a Federal Police official statement, altogether 16 searches and six arrests had so far been carried out in Rio de Janeiro connected to fraudulent Covid-19 data being introduced into Brazil’s national health system, though the statement did not specify the names of Bolsonaro or Cid.
Local media has reported that the vaccine cards of Bolsonaro, his advisors and his family had been altered, a claim he denied.
“There was no adulteration on my part, it didn’t happen,” Bolsonaro told reporters on Wednesday after the search. “I didn’t take the vaccine, period. I never denied that.”
While president in September 2021, Bolsonaro went into isolation after testing positive for Covid following a visit to the United Nations headquarters in New York. At the time, he was the only member of his entourage who’d defied U.N. rules mandating all participants be inoculated against Covid before taking part in the General Assembly.
This week’s police investigation raises questions about whether Bolsonaro presented altered Covid documents during that U.N. visit, or the two other visits he’s made to the U.S. since this country’s federal government mandated non-citizens be fully vaccinated before entering.
The police search of his home adds to Bolsonaro’s mounting legal issues. Federal Police have interviewed him twice last month in two separate investigations—one into diamond jewelry he’d received from Saudi Arabia and another regarding his role in the January 8 storming of Congress in Brasilia by rioters protesting his election loss to current President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
