Brazil’s top prosecutor on Tuesday charged former Presidents Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff along with fellow Workers Party members with forming a criminal organization, the latest accusations in Brazil’s sprawling corruption scandal
The prosecutor, Rodrigo Janot, alleged that eight members of the Workers Party, including Lula and Rousseff, and two ex finance ministers, Mantega and Pelocci, committed a series of crimes involving state-owned oil firm Petrobras such as cartel formation, corruption and money laundering.
They were the first criminal charges to be leveled against Rousseff, who was impeached in 2016 for breaking budgetary laws.
The 230-page document filed with the Supreme Court accused Lula of heading the organization.
Lula’s lawyer said the law was being misused to persecute the former president.
The Workers Party said in a statement that the charges were baseless and being used to divert attention from other investigations, including one into a former federal prosecutor, referring to a case Janot announced on Monday.
A representative for Rousseff said the prosecutor’s office had offered no evidence of the crimes and called on the Supreme Court to guarantee the right to defend against them.
Lula, who is still Brazil’s most popular politician, is appealing a corruption conviction that would bar him from running for president in 2018. He faces four other corruption trials.
The charges stem from the Operation Car Wash investigation that uncovered a cartel of companies paying bribes to officials to secure Petrobras contracts, revelations that have spawned a host of investigations that has shaken Brazil’s political system and economy.
Top Comments
Disclaimer & comment rulesLATE NEWS: Top prosecutor accuses Lula and Dilma of forming a criminal organization:
Sep 07th, 2017 - 02:09 pm 0https://i2.wp.com/www.humorpolitico.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Um-gole-pro-Lula.jpg?resize=547%2C420&ssl=1
Let them squirm and deny all charges....the evidence Janot presented, along with Palocci's testimony of yesterday (to Judge Moro), both Lula and Dilma (plus Palocci, Mantega, Gleisi Hoffmann & her husband, and Vaccari Neto) are being buried in more of their own sh*t.
Sep 07th, 2017 - 05:22 pm 0Watching Lula's lawyer, one can't help thinking , what a pathetic idiot he is...his only defence is the conspiracy theory, and that EVERYONE else, is out to get Lula - the most honest man in Brazil ; he must be getting paid a fortune (from stolen money), but his insistence in flogging a dead horse can't be doing his reputation much good...
The rest of the politicians must be considering Geddel, a fool for getting caught while they ALL can deny the charges!
Sep 08th, 2017 - 10:51 am 0http://www.otempo.com.br/polopoly_fs/1.1517349.1504736180!image/image.JPG_gen/derivatives/main-charges-resize_620/image.JPG
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