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Prosecutors file plea agreement to open case that accuses the rightwing presidential candidate of ‘damaging society’
Brazil’s top court has started an investigation into claims that rightwing presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro made unfounded allegations against the medical company Covidien and the use of a subtype of vaccines in 2005.
Bolsonaro, who has ordered a freeze on imports of vaccines containing the subtype of vaccine to which Bolsonaro is suspected of referring, is one of several lawmakers on the justice ministry’s commission investigating the vaccines.
Bolsonaro has questioned the safety of some types of vaccines and has linked the subtype of vaccine to the AIDS virus.
He has also accused the GlaxoSmithKline company, Covidien, of knowingly distributing subtype of vaccines, a point it has denied.
“There is now a probe into the immunisation practices (at Covidien). It is a serious one, not just for GlaxoSmithKline, but for society as a whole,” Bolsonaro’s son, Eduardo, told journalists on Friday.
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Bolsonaro and his running mate, far-right congressman Hamilton Mourao, are now ineligible to participate in the presidential election following the resignation on Friday of Arthur Virgilio Melo, a member of the anti-corruption watchdog Transparency Institute.
Brazil’s largest parties – Unidos Podemos, PSDB and PT – on Friday urged the electoral court to remove Bolsonaro and Mourao from the ballot, local media reported.
A representative of the Bolsonaro campaign and the Brazilian Bar Association could not be reached for comment.
The centre-right president, Michel Temer, is working to defeat Bolsonaro in the October election.