Brazil Supreme Court launches investigation on four senators at PMDB party

Supreme Court Justice Edson Fachin upheld a request to investigate four senators from PMDB, the interim ruling party—Renan Calheiros (President of the National Congress and the Senate), Romero Jucá, Valdir Raupp, and Jader Barbalho.

The request was filed by Prosecutor-General Rodrigo Janot in May, based on plea bargain statements heard from former senator and government leader in the Senate Delcídio do Amaral, who was removed from office after being arrested as part of Operation Car Wash, the case on the corruption scandal involving Petrobras.

The investigation, held in camera, is targeted at alleged kickbacks from a contractor in the project to build the Belo Monte dam in Pará state. An existing probe on Senator Edison Lobão, also a member of the PMDB, is held over the same allegations is going on under the Supreme Court.

According Janot, Delcídio do Amaral said in his plea bargain testimony that kickbacks paid amount to at least $8.6 million. The money, he said, was paid to the Workers' Party (PT) and the PMDB, with the PT's share going into the election campaign of President Dilma Rousseff, who is currently suspended pending her impeachment trial.

Translated by Mayra Borges