Brazil prosecutor charges President Temer with corruption

Brazilian President Michel Temer has been charged with obstruction of justice and leading a criminal group by the country’s chief prosecutor.

Temer and six heavyweight political allies were accused, said Prosecutor General Rodrigo Janot’s office in a statement.

The statement said Temer “acted as leader of a criminal organization” comprising senior officials from his center-right PMDB party, allegedly taking almost 190 million US dollars in kickbacks for contracts at public companies like oil giant Petrobras.

The alleged corruption ring operated from May 2016, when Temer first took over from leftist President Dilma Rousseff following her impeachment, Janot’s office said.

The prosecutor’s office said Temer also obstructed justice by attempting to pay bribes to prevent businessman Lucio Funaro, an alleged middleman in the bribery, from testifying against him under a plea deal with prosecutors.

The criminal charges must be first accepted by the Supreme Court before being sent for debate in the lower house. If the house accepts the charges and a trial starts, Temer would be suspended for 180 days, pending the result.

However, the president is widely thought to have enough support in Congress to avoid being forced to trial, allowing him to finish his term at the end of 2018.

Janot had already charged Temer with bribe-taking in June but the lower house of the legislature voted overwhelmingly to throw out the charge, preventing him from being tried at the Supreme Court.

“The second round of corruption charges against President Michel Temer is likely to be handily rejected,” Eurasia Group said in an analysis note.

The charges are part of an onslaught by prosecutors against Brazil’s corruption-riddled elite in which dozens of politicians and executives have been convicted or are being charged in embezzlement and bribery schemes.

(AFP)