Senate calls for charges

A Brazilian Senate committee has recommended that President Jair Bolsonaro face a series of criminal indictments for actions and omissions related to the world’s secondhighest Covid-19 death toll. The 7-4 vote yesterday was the culmination of a six-month investigation of the government’s handling of the pandemic. The committee formally approved a report calling for prosecutors to try Bolsonaro on charges ranging from charlatanism and inciting crime to misuse of public funds and crimes against humanity, and in doing so hold him responsible for many of Brazil’s more than 600,000 Covid-19 deaths. Since the start of the pandemic, Bolsonaro has sabotaged local leaders’ restrictions aimed at stopping the spread of the coronavirus, falsely touted an anti-malaria drug as a cure, organised large gatherings of people without masks, and sowed doubt about vaccines.