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EspañolBrazil’s Attorney General Rodrigo Janot reportedly requested the country’s Supreme Court imprison current President of the Senate Renan Calheiros — along with Senator and former Minister of Planning Romero Jucá and former President José Sarney, according to Brazilian media outlets.
The politicians had allegedly been trying to obstruct corruption investigations into the largely state-owned oil company Petrobas, according to a report published Tuesday, June 6 in the Brazilian newspaper O Globo.
All of the officials mentioned by the Attorney General are high-standing members of the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB), which is also the party of interim President of Brazil Michel Temer. He assumed the position following the suspension de Dilma Rousseff in May.
According to O Globo, the Attorney General had examined the series of recordings turned over by a member of the PMDB in exchange for a reduced sentence.
The tapes, which were obtained by the media in May, suggest Jucá, Calheiros and Sarney were looking for a way to have Rousseff dismissed so as to obstruct ongoing investigations into corruption affecting the most influential politicians and businessmen in the country.
Jucá stepped down from his position as Minister of Planning after the recordings came to light.
The Attorney General asked that Sarney, 86, be put on house arrest, with an electronic bracelet attached to his ankle. He also called for the removal of Renan Calheiros as Senate President.
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The prison request will be evaluated by the Supreme Minister Teori Zavascki, who was reportedly surveying the opinions of colleagues over the last few days.
Leaks of compromising conversations in the PNDB have put criticisms against Temer’s government front and center. Temer came to power once congress approved the impeachment process against Rousseff.
Senator Aécio Neves of the Brazilian Social Democracy Party, who faced off against Rousseff in the last election, was accused this Monday of obstructing justice in an anti-corruption investigation case.
Source: El País.
