Foto: Alan Santos/PRO Movimento Brasil Livre vai apresentar uma denúncia contra Jair Bolsonaro no Tribunal Penal Internacional, em Haia. No documento, o grupo acusa o presidente de genocídio por ignorar evidências científicas durante a pandemia.
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O texto é assinado pelo líder do MBL Renato Battista. Ele pede a abertura de investigação e a prisão preventiva de Bolsonaro, para evitar que os crimes denunciados continuem a ocorrer.
O MBL cita o incentivo de Bolsonaro à disseminação do coronavírus com o objetivo de que as pessoas se imunizassem de maneira natural.
“O senhor Bolsonaro, sabendo da gravidade da pandemia, continuamente ignorou as evidências. Em algumas oportunidades, ele sugeriu que a disseminação deliberada do coronavírus seria positiva, porque iria criar uma imunidade para a população sem a necessidade de uma vacina.”
A denúncia também aponta que Bolsonaro incitou a população a não seguir recomendações sanitárias de contenção da pandemia ao utilizar fake news para atacar vacinas.
“Bolsonaro fez um apelo para que as pessoas não tomassem vacinas e usassem medicamentos ineficázes, além de ignorarem as medidas de distanciamento social. Ele fez isso sabendo do crescimento dos números de casos e mortes e do colapso do sistema de saúde. Ele fez isso com informações científicas sólidas sobre o coronavírus, sobre a efetividade das vacinas e sobre a ineficácia de drogas como a cloroquina. É impossível alegar falta de informação ou ignorância.”
“Por todos motivos citados acima, nós pedimos a emissão de um mandado de prisão contra Jair Messias Bolsonaro, para evitar que esses atos continuem a ocorrer.”
Leia a íntegra do documento:
To the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court
“Punishment is justice for the unjust”
St. Augustine
REPORT / REQUEST
By
- Renato de Souza Battista, Brazilian citizen
FOR THE INITIATION OF AN INVESTIGATION
AGAINST
- Jair Messias Bolsonaro, president of the Federative Republico of Brazil
Statement of facts
As is well known, Brazil was seriously hit by the Covid-19 pandemic. To date, nearly six hundred thousand people have died as a result of the pandemic.
The pandemic spread across Brazilian territory in early 2020. It was expected that the President of the Republic, mr. Jair Messias Bolsonaro, follow the recommendations of the health authorities – Brazilian and international – and adopt measures capable of mitigating it.
That’s not what happened. The president of Brazil adopted a denial stance, going on television and radio to say that the pandemic was not dangerous and that the effects resulting from contagion with the coronavirus were similar to that of a common cold.
Brazil, being a mostly poor country with a population with little access to newspapers and magazines, has a television network that covers the entire national territory. The poorest part of the population – the majority – is basically informed by television. Seeing the President of the Republic belittling the effects of the pandemic on television, the Brazilian people felt comfortable abandoning sanitary measures, which brought catastrophic results.
Mr. Bolsonaro, however, was not convinced due to the huge increase in the number of infections and deaths. When vaccines began to be developed, the federal government showed an unwillingness to acquire them, adopting an attitude of skepticism towards them. Thus, Brazilian state governors began negotiating with foreign laboratories to acquire ready-made vaccines and raw materials for their manufacture. Such paradiplomacy efforts were received with hostility by the federal government and were only carried out after intervention by the Judiciary.
When the Brazilian population finally began to be vaccinated – with a delay in relation to the rest of the world – the Bolsonaro government continued to publicly question the effectiveness of the vaccines, suggesting to the population not to take it. Worse still, Bolsonaro started to defend the use of drugs that were not only proven to be ineffective but could also endanger the health of those who took it, as is the case of hydroxychloroquine.
Because of this alone, it can be said that President Bolsonaro contributed to the deaths of thousands of people. However, the situation becomes even more serious. When the federal government finally began negotiating the purchase of vaccines – after ignoring dozens of e-mails sent by large manufacturers, such as Pfizer – agents linked to the government and Bolsonaro’s family began to undertake hidden negotiations, in order to profit with the acquisition of vaccines through bribes.
As more than 4,000 people died each day and Brazil became the world’s epicenter of the pandemic, Mr. Bolsonaro and his inner circle benefited financially from the vaccines.
Recently, the Brazilian National Congress started an investigation commission that is bringing these facts to the public knowledge. It so happens that, even with the publicity given to the facts, the chance of punishment of Mr. Bolsonaro by the Brazilian system is small. Criminal punishment would depend on a case filed by the attorney general and authorized by the Chamber of Deputies. Well then, Mr. Bolsonaro led to the post an attorney general aligned with his ideas and known for being inert in government oversight. Furthermore, a broad scheme of distribution of positions for federal deputies was started, in order to prevent the Chamber of Deputies from authorizing the initiation of criminal proceedings.
Legal evaluation
Art. 6 of the Rome Statute is very clear in stating that the crime of genocide is characterized, among other cases, by the murder of members of a group or subjection to situations that generate their destruction, intentionally.
Well then, mr. Bolsonaro, knowing the status of the pandemic, continually ignored the evidence. At times, he even suggested that widespread dissemination of the coronavirus would be beneficial, because it would create immunity in the population without the need for a vaccine.
Art. 25 of the Statute also makes it clear that the incitement to its practice is a typifying element. Now, Mr. Bolsonaro urged people not to take vaccines and to use ineffective medicines, as well as to ignore social distancing measures. He did so knowing the growing and catastrophic numbers of the infected and the dead and the collapse of the health care system. He did all of this with solid scientific information about the coronavirus, the effectiveness of vaccines, and the ineffectiveness of drugs like chloroquine, as well as the need for social isolation. Such information was given to him by national and international bodies.
It is not possible to plead lack of knowledge or ignorance, therefore.
The reasons that led mr. Bolsonaro to have such an attitude are not yet fully known. Partial investigations carried out by the Brazilian Senate’s commission of inquiry indicate that Bolsonaro wanted to profit from kickbacks levied for the purchase of vaccines. If this is true, this fact is even more serious, because he generated a genocide with the intention of profit. Even if it isn’t, the crime of genocide is still featured.
There is enough evidence to initiate a formal investigation.
For all the above reasons, we request:
- Opening of an investigation, pursuant to art. 53 of the Rome Statute, or the attachment of this complaint to any investigation already opened, with the facts now being narrated the subject of investigation;
- Issuance of an arrest warrant against Jair Messias Bolsonaro, to prevent these acts from continuing to occur, pursuant to art. 58. 1, III, of the Rome Statute
Renato de Souza Battista
