Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Authorizes Investigation of President Temer

05/19/2017 - 13h38

Supreme Court Justice Edson Fachin authorizes the beginning of the proceedings to investigate whether President Michel Temer committed the crime of obstructing justice based on the plea bargain agreement of the Batista brothers, of the JBS group.

Businessman Wesley and Joesley Batista gave public prosecutors a recording in which Temer is informed that JBS kept a representative inside the Lava Jato task force.

Joesley Batista also tells Temer that he was "holding back" judges and was trying to "change" a prosecutor who was investigating the president. When Joesley Batista tells Temer that he was "on good terms" with the former president of the House of Representatives, Eduardo Cunha, currently in jail, Temer answers: "We have to keep it that way, okay?"

	Pedro Ladeira - 14.fev.2017/Folhapress
	Supreme Court justice Edson Fachin

Folha verified that in April 2017, the Attorney General of the Republic, Rodrigo Janot, consulted Justice Fachin on the possibility of investigating Temer.

A former executive of construction company Odebrecht said in his plea bargain that President Temer led a meeting in São Paulo in which he made arrangements for the payment of US$ 40 million in bribes while he was still a vice president candidate in 2010.

At the occasion Janot issued an order that cited other politicians who should be investigated "with the exception of the current president, Michel Temer" who "has temporary immunity to penal prosecution."

Janot claimed that, according to the constitution, while the president is in office, he cannot be held responsible for acts prior to that. The argument, however, is the target of much controversy among specialists.

Translated by THOMAS MUELLO

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