Brazilian authorities announced Thursday that they would archive the probe into Bolsonaro’s handling of COVID-19, concluding there was no specific evidence or concrete acts to support the complex allegations. Federal Prosecutor Luciana Furtado de Moraes noted that the original complaint relied largely on “personal reports, subjective evaluations, political perceptions” without documentary proof.

The investigation followed Bolsonaro’s 2022 election loss to socialist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and was part of a series of politically motivated charges brought against the former leader. Prosecutors had claimed Bolsonaro’s pandemic decisions, such as opposing lockdowns, mask mandates, and vaccine measures, could amount to genocide. The office, however, determined the claims were “generic” and insufficient to pursue criminal charges.

Bolsonaro had advocated keeping Brazil’s economy open during the pandemic and promoted chloroquine as a treatment for COVID-19. While he initially criticized vaccines, he later publicly thanked the Chinese government for providing doses.

The dismissal represents another setback for left-leaning prosecutors targeting Bolsonaro after his presidency. Although he remains imprisoned on unrelated charges tied to a January 2023 riot in Brasília, Thursday’s ruling removes one of the most politically charged accusations from the legal record against him.