Bolsonaro has been charged with several crimes of corruption for his management of the Covid-19 pandemic. | Photo: EFE​

Brasilia, December 9 (RHC)-- A group of jurists have filed a new impeachment request in the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies against President Jair Bolsonaro, based on the report of the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (CPI) on the management of the COVID-19 pandemic.

With this, there have been a total of 143 impeachment petitions filed against the Brazilian president since he took office.  On this occasion, the petition was filed by jurist Miguel Reale Junior, together with senators Omar Aziz, Randolfe Rodrigues and Renan Calheiros.

Reale criticized Bolsonaro's defensive posture regarding the so-called "collective immunization" (without vaccination), the boycott of the use of masks, vaccines and social isolation, as well as promoting agglomerations.

He further commented that these actions by Bolsonaro endangered the lives and health of an undetermined number of people, qualifying his actions as a crime of function responsibility, in line with all the evidence collected by the ICC.    "The president did nothing more than conspire against the very law he had enacted (Law No. 13,979), which established a plan to combat the pandemic, Reale said.

For his part, Rodrigues said that Bolsonaro is accused of "a set of crimes that were committed in the conduct of the pandemic in our country, committed mainly by the Federal Government and its authorities, highlighting in the first place the responsibility of the President of the Republic".

According to the Chamber of Deputies, five similar petitions were delivered against Bolsonaro in 2019; another 54 in 2020, and 84 so far in 2021, most of which are still under analysis.  

However, the Federal Deputy and president of the Chamber, Arthur Lira, has dismissed most of the impeachment requests against the head of state.