Brazil Prosecutor-General asks to open inquiry against lower house speaker

Prosecutor-General Rodrigo Janot asked the Supreme Court (STF) to authorize the initiation of inquiries into people mentioned in the plea bargain made by Senator Delcídio do Amaral under probe by the Operation Car Wash. The petitions were submitted to the Supreme Court on Thursday (Apr. 28).

Janot intends to investigate Lower House Speaker Eduardo Cunha (PMDB-RJ), Senator Aécio Neves, national president of the Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB), and several other politicians listed by Senator Amaral in his statements to the Federal Police.

Justice Teori Zavascki, special investigator for the Operation Car Wash case in the Supreme Court, will be responsible for ruling on the petition.

In March, Zavascki approved the agreement of Senator Delcídio do Amaral's plea bargain, signed with the Prosecutor-General's Office (PGR), in order to cooperate with the operation's investigation. On the occasion, the justice revoked the case's confidentiality and released the full text of plea bargain's testimonies.

Last month, Zavascki ordered to include in the major inquiry of Operation Car Wash, parts of the Senator Delcídio do Amaral's plea bargain in which he mentioned President Dilma Rousseff, Vice-President, Michel Temer, and former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

In the plea bargain, former Petrobras CEO Joel Rennó was also mentioned and included in the inquiry. He was Petrobras CEO during the former President Fernando Henrique Cardoso's administration.

Eduardo Cunha

In a part of the plea bargain statements, Delcídio do Amaral reported that Lower House Speaker Eduardo Cunha had also appointed employees working at Furnas, a subsidiary of Petrobras in the electric sector. According to him, Cunha used applications to convene businessmen who had contracts with the state-led company. "This procedure of making applications and using parliamentary expedients is very common to Eduardo Cunha," he pointed out in another part.

Deputy Eduardo Cunha has not yet expressed himself against the charges.

Aécio Neves

In the same statement, Delcídio do Amaral reported that Senator Aécio Neves received "illicit payments" made, according to him, by former Furnas Director Dimas Toledo.

"The deponent said he does not know the exact amount, but he is aware that Dimas conducted an operation for payments and one of the beneficiaries of the unlawful values was undoubtedly Aécio Neves," he reported in a passage of the plea bargain.

PSDB National President Senator Aécio Neves said that "he considers absolutely natural and necessary to carry out investigations, as they will produce evidence, as has happened before, about the correctness of his conduct."

In a note released by his press office, Neves noted that every time Delcídio do Amaral mentioned his name, they were about situations he "heard about" without any evidence offered by the senator.

"These are old issues, that led to previous investigations, and the cases were dismissed, or they concerned topics that have no relation with the senator," read the statement.

Translated by Amarílis Anchieta