Social media posts have claimed that former president Jair Bolsonaro was acquitted of all charges by the Parliamentary Inquiry Committee (CPI) that investigated the management of the Covid-19 pandemic in Brazil. However, this information is false and does not correspond to the reality of the facts.
The Covid CPI was established in the Federal Senate in April 2021 with the objective of investigating actions and omissions of the federal government during the pandemic. The committee worked for months, gathering documents, hearing witnesses, and analyzing evidence about the Executive's response to the health crisis.
Throughout its investigations, the CPI identified several irregularities in the government's conduct, including delays in vaccine acquisition, dissemination of false information about treatments without proven efficacy, and failures in coordinating the national response to the virus. The committee's final report recommended the indictment of Bolsonaro and other authorities for crimes such as dereliction of duty, charadas, and crimes against humanity.
The truth is that the CPI did not have the power to acquit or convict anyone, as it was an investigative body of the legislature. The indictment recommendations were forwarded to the Public Ministry, which is responsible for deciding whether to file charges against those investigated.
