Vaccine card: Bolsonaro can answer for 6 crimes – 05/03/2023 – Power

The suspicion of tampering with the vaccination card of former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) and his youngest daughter, Laura, could, if confirmed, lead the former president to answer for six crimes provided for in the Penal Code.

The Federal Police said that the facts investigated by the operation carried out this Wednesday (3), in which Bolsonaro was one of the targets, configure, in theory, the practice of infraction of preventive health measure, criminal association, insertion of false data in systems of information and corruption of minors.

Criminal experts heard by Sheet consider, however, that part of the cited crimes is difficult to classify. They also point out the hypothesis of the practice of ideological falsehood and the use of a false document. If the use of the fraudulent certificate is proven during the trip to the USA, the former president may also respond to the authorities of that country.

The chance of arrest of the former representative at this time as a result of this operation is seen as unlikely. Experts say this could change if there is a risk to investigations.

According to the Federal Police, the targets of the operation would have made the false insertions between November 2021 and December 2022 so that beneficiaries could issue a vaccination certificate to travel to the United States.

“When he presents the vaccination certificate to the American government, he is committing a crime against the American government”, says lawyer Davi Tangerino, professor of law at Uerj (State University of Rio de Janeiro).

Bolsonaro said this Wednesday that he had not taken a vaccine against Covid and denied having tampered with the vaccination document to travel.

“I didn’t take the vaccine. I was never asked for a vaccine card [para entrar nos EUA]. There is no tampering on my part. I didn’t get the vaccine, period. I never denied that,” he told reporters.

The lawyer and professor of criminal law at USP Helena Regina Lobo says that it is difficult to define the crime of violating a preventive health measure, as the Penal Code requires the existence of a determination by the public power to be contradicted.

“We didn’t exactly have an imposing obligation to take a vaccine. What happened were limitations on the practices of acts, which started to demand a vaccine or a previous exam”, he says.

Other frameworks considered difficult are those referring to criminal association, which for Tangerino (Uerj) is not possible due to the existence of specific fraud, and corruption of minors. The latter is provided for in the Child and Adolescent Statute, which mentions a situation in which an adult induces a minor to commit an illegal act.

Criminal lawyer Flávia Rahal, partner of the RCVA office, says that the operation determined by the Supreme Court was aimed at locating evidence of the crimes being investigated and only with its result will it be possible to know if there are elements for a criminal case.

For Raquel Scalcon, lawyer and professor of criminal law at FGV Direito-SP, the chances of this happening are high due to the accumulation of crimes against the former president.

“Bolsonaro’s legal siege is gaining strength with this new situation. Without a doubt, the former president is increasingly exposed,” he says.

Renato Stanziola Vieira, president of IBCCrim (Brazilian Institute of Criminal Sciences), says that the case opens a new frontier of investigation against Bolsonaro, with the participation of people who were not mentioned in the investigations of the CPI of Covid, held in the Senate, in 2021 .

“It is an investigation that will naturally start from scratch, despite the previous suspicions, because until then there was no evidence”, says the lawyer.

The operation was carried out within the scope of the digital militias inquiry, which is being processed by the STF under the report of Minister Alexandre de Moraes. Because of this, there is doubt as to whether the magistrate will forward the investigation to the first instance, since the former president no longer has jurisdiction by function prerogative.

If it decides to keep the investigation in court, because of the connection between the evidence in the case, it will be up to the Attorney General’s Office to assess whether to file a complaint against Bolsonaro with Justice.

“It is possible to dismember this part and send it to the first instance, so that the member of the corresponding Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office can analyze it”, says Lobo (USP).

Possible crimes committed by Bolsonaro provided for in the Penal Code

• Violation of preventive health measure

Art. 268. Infringing determination of the public authority, intended to prevent the introduction or spread of contagious disease:
Pity: detention, from one month to one year, and a fine.

Art. 288. 3 (three) or more people join together for the specific purpose of committing crimes:
Pity: imprisonment, from 1 (one) to 3 (three) years.

Art. 299. Omit, in a public or private document, a statement that should be included therein, or insert or cause to insert a false or different statement from that which should be written, with the aim of harming the right, creating an obligation or altering the truth about a legally relevant fact:
Pity: imprisonment, from one to five years, and a fine, if the document is public, and imprisonment from one to three years, and a fine, from five hundred thousand réis to five contos de réis, if the document is private.

Art. 304. Make use of any of the counterfeit or altered papers referred to in arts. 297 to 302:
Pity: the one related to falsification or alteration.

• Insertion of false data in the information system

Art. 313-A. Insert or facilitate, the authorized employee, the insertion of false data, improperly alter or delete correct data in the computerized systems or databases of the Public Administration in order to obtain undue advantage for himself or for others or to cause damage:
Pity: imprisonment, from 2 (two) to 12 (twelve) years, and a fine. The penalty for falsifying a private document is imprisonment from one to five years and a fine.

• Offense provided for in the Statute of Children and Adolescents (law 8.069/1990)

Art. 244-B. Corrupting or facilitating the corruption of a minor under 18 (eighteen) years of age, with him committing a criminal offense or inducing him to commit it:
Pity: imprisonment, from 1 (one) to 4 (four) years.