Brazil's former lower house speaker Cunha arrested on corruption charges

Brazil's former head of the Chamber of Deputies Eduardo Cunha was arrested in the capital of Brasilia on Wednesday on corruption charges.

Judge Sergio Moro, who is leading a long-running investigation, known as Operation Carwash, into graft and embezzlement at state oil giant Petrobras, ordered the preventive detention.

Cunha was shown being escorted onto a plane bound for Curitiba, in Parana state, where suspects in the case are being sentenced, news agency Agencia Brasil said.

Cunha, best known for leading the charge to impeach former President Dilma Rousseff, of the left-leaning Workers' Party, was stripped of his seat in the lower house in September due to a number of accusations against him.

Losing the immunity that comes with his office paved the way for Judge Moro to issue the preventive arrest warrant aimed at prevent him from fleeing, tampering with evidence or trying to use his influence to coerce witnesses.

Cunha also holds Italian citizenship, making him a flight risk, especially as he is suspected of having stashed away more money abroad than the millions of dollars found to date in secret Swiss bank accounts belonging to him.

He is implicated in at least four other criminal cases, including allegedly receiving millions in kickbacks from Petrobras drilling contracts.

Brazil's President Michel Temer announced his early return from Japan shortly after the news of Cunha's arrest, though the government did not confirm why the president cut his trip short.

Temer, who once served as Rousseff's vice president, and Cunha both belong to the right-of-center Brazilian Democratic Movement Party. Endit