With Brazil’s unpopular government battling to hold together a congressional coalition, President Michel Temer has been unlucky with his pick of cabinet ministers. Seven quit or were fired in his first year in office, four of them following allegations of wrongdoing. Among them, Geddel Vieira Lima, who was eventually arrested after police identified his fingerprints in an apartment filled with US$16 million in cash.
Brazil Federal Supreme Tribunal denied on Wednesday a request to include former president Lula da Silva in the so-called “trial of the century” involving 38 former ministers and lawmakers accused of an extended bribes scheme.
The defence of one of the main accused at Brazil’s “trial of the century” claimed at a hearing before the Supreme Tribunal (Supreme court) that former president Lula da Silva (2003/2010) was who ordered the bribes scheme to buy votes in Congress.