MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Temer manages a first victory to avoid trial over graft charges
Brazil's full Chamber of Deputies is expected within days to vote on whether the Supreme Court should put Temer on trial. Brazilian President Michel Temer looked on track on Thursday to avoid trial over graft charges, after a committee of lawmakers recommended the accusations against him be shelved ahead of a congressional vote. If the matter is put aside, Temer would win some respite.
Brazil's full Chamber of Deputies is expected within days to vote on whether the Supreme Court should put Temer on trial. The president has denied the allegations that he took a US$150,000 bribe from a meatpacking firm.
Police arrested an adviser of Temer's with a suitcase full of money, which prosecutors allege was destined for Temer as a bribe. An audio recording also emerged of Temer apparently approving the payment of hush money to a jailed ally.
The congressional committee on the constitution, justice and citizenship voted 40 votes to 25 to shelve the accusations. For congress to approve a trial, two-thirds of the 513 deputies have to vote in favor.
The charges on Thursday were the first of several against the president made by Prosecutor General Rodrigo Janot, who has said he will present more in the coming weeks.
Top Comments
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Read all commentsAs predicted Temer shutdown justice. That is why he was made president.
Jul 17th, 2017 - 10:17 am +1I fail to see the cheerleader crowd coming to voice their outrage for this show of bias and partiality when it comes to chastise corruption. However self-righteous commentators are crowding the commentary section under the story about Lula da Silva's guilty verdict.
Jul 17th, 2017 - 04:59 pm +1Talk about double standard.
No one expected anything different. Since it's up to the Chamber of Deputies and not the courts it's entirely a political decision. Temer has enough support to continue for now, but there will be more charges coming and his chances of making it to the end of his (or rather Dilma's) term are not that great.
Jul 17th, 2017 - 11:47 pm +1I'd say the earlier decision to let him and Rousseff off for the campaign finance corruption was a bigger deal as that was an actual court and they more or less admitted they did it to avoid political turmoil.
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