Lock him up! Report says Bolsonaro faces jail for Covid deaths

Jair Bolsonaro should be charged with crimes against humanity and jailed for his "macabre” reaction to Covid outbreak that has killed more than 600,000 Brazilians, including a disproportionate number of indigenous citizens, a congressional inquiry found last week.

- Tom Phillips

Two of the most dramatic accusations against the Brazilian president - murder and genocide of indigenous people - had been removed from a previous draft of the report on 19 October after talks between opposition senators serving on the inquiry.

But the final draft suggests the committee will recommend Brazil's populist president be charged with nine separate offenses including charlatanism, incitement to commit crimes, the propagation of pathogenic germs, and crimes against humanity.

The investigation, which Bolsonaro's political rivals hope will wreck his chances of re-election, was set up in April and was scheduled to conclude with a senate vote on its final report.

That 1,180-page document - which savages the Bolsonaro administration's anti-scientific and “slovenly" pandemic response - will make profoundly uncomfortable reading for Brazil's far-right leader and dozens of allies, against whom charges are also recommended.

“[We must]never forget what happened in this country or the innocent people who lost their lives as a result of the government's reckless handling of the pandemic,” says the report.

The inquiry's president, Senator Omar Aziz,told a hearing in the capital, Brasília: "The president committed many crimes and he will pay for them.”

Senator Randolfe Rodrigues, the inquiry's vice-president, told reporters Bolsonaro's future should lie behind bars.