A Brazilian Senate commission on Tuesday approved a report that recommends criminal charges be filed against President Jair Bolsonaro for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
Seven of the panel's 11 members backed a report calling for nine charges to be filed against Bolsonaro, including crimes against humanity. The report also called for the Supreme Court to suspend Bolsonaro’s access to social media accounts after he shared false information about COVID-19. Earlier this week, Facebook and YouTube removed a video in which Bolsonaro claimed that COVID-19 vaccine is linked to AIDS.
Bolsonaro has maintained he is "guilty of absolutely nothing".
More than 600,000 people in Brazil are confirmed to have died from COVID-19.
The report was prepared after six months of heated hearings that included testimonies from four men who served as health ministers during the pandemic, Bolsonaro’s allies, and companies that pushed for unproven early treatment, Bloomberg Quint reported.
The committee chair, Senator Omar Aziz, will send the findings to Brazil's prosecutor-general on Wednesday.
