BRASILIA: Brazil’s former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has been charged by prosecutors who said the leftist politician was the mastermind behind the country’s biggest bribery scheme.
Lula, a founder of the Workers Party (PT) that controlled Brazil’s presidency from 2003 until last year, is already facing five separate trials on corruption charges with a ruling in the first expected by July.
Under Brazilian law, it is now up to a federal judge to decide if Lula will stand trial for the latest charges.
Prosecutors accused Lula of leading a scheme in which politicians and executives at state-run oil company Petrobras received bribes from companies seeking contracts for public projects.
Lula’s defense lawyers said in a statement that the new charges were “frivolous” and part of political persecution of the former leader who is leading opinion polls for next year’s presidential elections.
If Lula were convicted in any of the trials, and the ruling was upheld by a second court, he would be legally disqualified from running and likely go to prison.
Current Brazilian President Michel Temer is facing calls for his resignation over corruption and said he would not step down even if he was formally indicted by the Supreme Court.
Temer took office a year ago after the ouster of Dilma Rousseff, who succeeded Lula.
Temer warned opponents Monday he will not go without a fight as he won more breathing space in a corruption crisis sparking calls for his resignation.
“If they want to, then they have to force me out, because if I resign, that is an admission of guilt,” he said in an interview with Folha newspaper.
Temer, who faces multiple impeachment demands, told Folha he had been “naive” in stumbling into the crisis that could bring him down just over a year since he replaced impeached president Dilma Rousseff. But he again insisted he had done nothing wrong.
The scandal erupted last week when Globo newspaper revealed a secret audio recording in which Joesley Batista, an executive from the JBS meatpacking giant, can allegedly be heard getting the president’s green light for paying hush money to a politician imprisoned for corruption.
With Temer placed under investigation for obstruction of justice and corruption, opponents are demanding his head.
Impeachment petitions are piling up. The highest-profile request was filed over the weekend by the Brazilian bar association - a stinging rebuke for Temer, a constitutional lawyer.
But Temer appeared to win new breathing space Monday, slowing what had been starting to look like dangerously growing momentum for his ouster.
The Supreme Court had been due to rule this Wednesday on a request by Temer for the investigation to be suspended pending analysis of what the president claims was the doctoring of the recording at the center of the case.
Parties allied to Temer’s center-right PMDB had been reportedly waiting for that ruling to decide whether or not to jump ship - potentially bringing down the government of Latin America’s biggest country.
However, Temer’s lawyers said that they no longer are asking for a suspension because they are satisfied that the court is making analysis of the disputed recording a priority.
Brazilian media reported that Temer’s team is now confident that the recording was doctored and will not be considered admissible as evidence.
The bar association and others argue, however, that there is enough, even without the supposedly damning audio, to bring Temer down.
