Brazilian President Slams Senate Special Commission's Charges As Farce

RIO DE JANEIRO (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 28th October, 2021) Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro slammed the Senate special commission's report charging him with nine crimes in handling the COVID-19 outbreak as farce.

"Anyone who is prudent enough understands that it was farce, this parliamentary commission of Renan's inquiry. Perhaps this is revenge?" Bolsonaro said in a television appearance.

The president also added that the commission's rapporteur, Senator Renan Calheiros, is attacking him out of revenge for old personal quarrels with his son, Senator Flavio Bolsonaro. The politician nevertheless acknowledged that the work of this commission has a great influence on the international level.

"As for the country's image in the world, it is terrible - it is believed that we live under a dictatorship, that I detain journalists, that I attack freedom of speech, that I have killed COVID patients," Bolsonaro said.

adding that this image negatively affects the economy, hitting at investments, tourism, fuel and inflation.

Earlier on Wednesday, senators handed the special commission's report to the republic's attorney general, who now has 30 days to decide whether to file a formal complaint against the president. The list of the accused also includes three children of Bolsonaro, current and former ministers, Federal deputies and businessmen. They are held responsible for a large number of victims of the COVID-19 pandemic, violation of sanitary measures, quackery, incitement to crime, falsification of documents, irrational use of public funds, malfeasance, crimes against humanity and violation of social rights.