His son, Flavio Bolsonaro, is one of four senators on the committee who support the president. The report, which he will vote on next week, will also file a criminal complaint against him.
In addition to the murder and genocide charges, the report recommends nine additional charges against Mr Bolsonaro, including false documents and “crimes against humanity”.
If the report is approved, Brazil’s attorney general will have 30 days to decide whether to bring criminal charges against Mr Bolsonaro and others named in the report. Brazil’s lower house in Congress will also have to approve the charges against Mr Bolsonaro. Mr De Souza said the outcome is unlikely: Mr Bolsonaro has appointed the attorney general, who remains his supporter, and his supporters control the lower house.
Mr Calheiros said that if the attorney general does not pursue the charges against the president, the senate committee will seek other potential legal remedies, including the Brazilian Supreme Court and the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
Irapuã Santana, a law professor at Rio de Janeiro State University, said if Mr Bolsonaro were formally charged, he would be suspended for 180 days while the Supreme Court decides the case. Mr. Santana said that if found guilty, he would be barred from the presidency for eight years and sentenced to years in prison. There is no death penalty in Brazil.
Mr Bolsonaro, Brazil’s 38th president, would not be the first to face murder charges. Mr. Santana said that Brazil’s 13th president, Washington Luis, was arrested and charged with murder following the murder of an opposition politician in 1930. After Mr. Luis was sacked, the military took control and appointed a political rival as president.
All three presidents who came before Mr. Bolsonaro have their own legal issues.
Michael Temer, head of the centre-right, arrested on corruption charges these were later dropped. Dilma Rousseff, Brazil’s first female president accused in 2016 on accusations of manipulating the federal budget. And leftist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who ruled the country from 2003 to 2010, spent 19 months in prison on corruption charges. Them dropped this year and now leader of Mr Bolsonaro in the polls in the 2022 presidential race.