The Attorney General of the Republic, Augusto Aras, asked the Federal Supreme Court (STF) to close the investigation that investigates the conduct of President Jair Bolsonaro in the case of negotiation for the purchase of the Covaxin vaccine, which would be used in immunization against covid-19. . The opinion was filed on the night of this Friday (18). According to Aras, the conduct attributed to Bolsonaro in the case does not constitute a crime.
Last month, the Federal Police had already concluded that there was no crime by the president in the case.
The investigation against Bolsonaro opened in July last year, with authorization from Minister Rosa Weber, of the STF. The measure complied with the request of the Attorney General’s Office (PGR) and was motivated by a crime report filed with the STF by senators Randolfe Rodrigues (Rede-AP), Jorge Kajuru (Podemos-GO) and Fabiano Contarato (Rede-ES).
The parliamentarians asked for the investigation of the crime of prevarication. The senators’ initiative was taken after the testimony of Luis Ricardo Miranda, a server at the Ministry of Health, to the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (CPI) of the Pandemic. He said he had suffered unusual pressure from his superiors to finalize the Covaxin purchase process, in addition to being aware of alleged irregularities in the process.
The server is the brother of deputy Luís Miranda (DEM-DF), to whom he said he reported the case. To the CPI, the parliamentarian said he had taken his brother’s report to President Jair Bolsonaro, in March 2021, but that no action had been taken.
In June of last year, the Ministry of Health suspended the contract for the purchase of the Indian vaccine, under the guidance of the Comptroller General of the Union (CGU), days after the testimony of the Miranda brothers. On the occasion, the President of the Republic declared that the suspension was made due to government controls.
In its statement to the STF, the PGR stated that Bolsonaro did not have a functional duty to take any action after being notified of possible irregularities, since this attribution was not provided for in the duties of the position defined by the Federal Constitution.
“Taking into account that the behavior attributed to the President is not within the scope of his powers, which are expressly enshrined in the constitutional text, there is no need to speak of a violated official act, which is why the element normative of the type”, wrote Augusto Aras.
In addition, the attorney general pointed out that, even without being called by the President of the Republic, the Federal Audit Court (TCU) and the Federal Comptroller General supervised the execution of the vaccine purchase contract by the Ministry of Health. “The shelving of this investigation is, therefore, an imperative measure”, concluded Aras.
