Report to urge charges against Brazil’s leader over pandemic

By DÉBORA ÁLVARES and DIANE JEANTET
Associated Press

BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — Brazilians are turning their focus on Wednesday to the Senate, where a report six months in the making will recommend President Jair Bolsonaro be indicted on criminal charges for allegedly bungling the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and pushing the country’s death toll to second-highest in the world. A draft of the report arising from a Senate committee’s investigation seen by The Associated Press recommended the president be indicted on 11 charges, from charlatanism and inciting crime all the way up to homicide and genocide. In the committee’s so-called “G7” group of senators, three opposed inclusion of homicide and genocide charges. Bolsonaro has denied any wrongdoing, and accuses the investigation of being a political instrument aimed at sabotaging him.