Brasilia, Oct 27(UNI0 A Senate committee in Brazil on Tuesday voted to recommend that President Jair Bolsonaro face criminal charges over his handling of the COVID pandemic in the country, the BBC reported on Wednesday.

The 11 member panel saw 7 of the members backing a report calling for Mr Bolsonaro to face nine charges, including crimes against humanity.

The committee's chairman, Senator Omar Aziz, will be sending the findings of the report to Brazil's prosecutor-general on Wednesday.

Mr Bolsonaro however, has remained defiant and has maintained he is "guilty of absolutely nothing".

So far Brazil has recorded more than 600,000 COVID related deaths, second only to the United States in terms of death toll from the coronavirus.

The report accuses the president of misusing public funds and peddling fake news.

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