Brazil's President Temer Charged with Corruption

06/27/2017 - 08h33

Advertising

CAMILA MATTOSO

LETÍCIA CASADO

REYNALDO TURROLO JR.

RUBENS VALENTE

FROM BRASÍLIA

Brazil's President Michel Temer (PMDB) was charged with corruption by the country's prosecutor general, Rodrigo Janot, late Monday (26).

Temer is accused of receiving a bribe from the owner of a meatpacking company implicated in a corruption scandal.

According to Janot, Temer obtained "personal gains" from Joesley Batista, owner of the meatpacking company JBS, in the form of R$ 500,000 (US$ 152,000), given to the president via former aide Rodrigo Rocha Loures, who was also charged.

It is the first time a sitting president has been formally charged of a crime in Brazil.

Janot split apart the lawsuit and will most likely also charge the president with obstruction of justice at the very least.

Justice Edson Fachin, who oversees the inquiry in the Supreme Court, will have to decide when to send the investigation to the lower house of Congress, which has to authorize the Supreme Court before it can bring any legal action against the president.

If a two-thirds majority (or 342 out of 513 congressmen) votes in favor of authorizing the Supreme Court, then the motion passes.

If legal action is brought against the president, he will be removed from office for 180 days and will become a defendant.

In order to try to get the charges dismissed, Temer intends to accuse Janot of trying to get him convicted without any evidence: he claims that since the money never left Loures' hands, there is no way of proving that he was the actual beneficiary.

Before being charged with corruption, the president said that "nothing could destroy [him]" and that the country "does not have a plan B".

Translated by THOMAS MATHEWSON

Read the article in the original language