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Brazil's Supreme Court charges lower chamber president with corruption

Xinhua, February 17, 2016 Adjust font size:

Brazil's Supreme Court (STF) on Tuesday notified President of the Chamber of Deputies Eduardo Cunha of the corruption charges facing him and granted him 10 days to prepare his defense, according to judicial sources.

In a press release, the STF said it had officially informed Cunha of the 10-day period to prepare his defenses, due to the attorney general's accusations of his suspected role in a corruption ring, which embezzled billions of U.S. dollars from national oil company Petrobras.

Rodrigo Janot, Brazil's attorney general, and the federal police have accused Cunha of receiving at least 5 million dollars for his role in fraudulent contracts offered by Petrobras to private companies.

Janot had asked the STF to strip Cunha of his seat as a representative and to be kicked out of the presidency of the Chamber of Deputies.

Cunha is also the target of an ethics investigation within the Chamber of Deputies, which could see him unseated if he is proved to have links to the Petrobras corruption ring.

Cunha, who has led the lower chamber since January 2015, is a member of the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party and has been a thorn in the side of President Dilma Rousseff.

In December, Cunha approved the start of impeachment proceedings against Rousseff for covering up suspected financial irregularities within her government in 2014 and 2015. The STF later froze this process due to procedural errors. Endi