Brazil Congress president refuses to comment on his arrest request
Renan Calheiros said the situation raises the country's political temperature and contributes to aggravating the crisis.
The president of Brazil's Congress and Senate, Renan Calheiros, said today (Jun. 7) that the Senate will play part of the solution of the institutional crisis, and will not aggravate it. Surrounded by reporters, when arriving at the upper house, he was questioned about his arrest request submitted by Prosecutor General Rodrigo Janot, based on plea bargain statements made by former Transpetro President Sérgio Machado.
"Let's wait for the Supreme Court's decision," he said. "Every time there are exaggerated, extravagant, excessive, disproportionate actions, some expressions, like democracy, constitution, freedom of speech, freedom of opinion, presumption of innocence, lose prestige. We will not cooperate with it," he said.
Renan Calheiros said the situation raises the country's political temperature and contributes to aggravating the crisis. "It will not help, the Senate will not cross its limit, or raise the temperature of the institutional crisis. The Senate is not part of the crisis, the Senate will be the solution for the crisis," he said.
According to a news article from O Globo newspaper published today (7), in addition to Calheiros's, arrest requests for Senator Romero Jucá, former Senator José Sarney, and suspended Lower House speaker Eduardo Cunha (all members of the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party) are, for at least a week, in the hands of Supreme Court Justice Teori Zavascki, who is in charge of the Operation Car Wash case.
Also according to the news article, the four would be suspected of obstructing Operation Car Wash investigations, based on individual conversations held between them and Sérgio Machado. Examining the conversations, the prosecutor considered that there are a number of suggestions and measures mentioned by them to halt investigations.
Despite the backlash sparked by the case, the advisory services of the Supreme Court and the Office of the Prosecutor General have not confirmed the information on the arrest requests yet.
Translated by Amarílis Anchieta
Fonte: Brazil Congress president refuses to comment on his arrest request
