Rousseff’s 2014 election rival to be tried by top court

Brazil’s Supreme Court justices decided to accept the charges brought by prosecutors against Senator Aécio Neves for the crimes of corruption and obstruction of justice. The allegations come as part of probes launched following the plea bargain statements given by executive Joesley Batista, of the J&F corporate group.

Aécio Neves is among the leaders of the Brazilian Social Democracy Party, the PSDB. He was among the lawmakers who played an instrumental role in the process of ousting former President Dilma Rousseff, of the Workers’ Party (PT), removed from office in 2014. He had faced Rousseff in the 2014 presidential elections and was narrowly defeated by his PT rival.

After the fall of Dilma Rousseff, the PSDB joined the base supporting her successor, President Michel Temer, of the Brazilian Democratic Movement (MDB), and was given the reins of a number of ministries.

The decision to accept the charges targeting Aécio Neves was made in compliance with the recommendation of Justice Marco Aurélio Mello, in charge of drawing up the report for the case. In Mello’s view, the fact that the senator had been recorded by Joesley Batista mentioning he would try to influence the appointment of Federal Police authorities is a sign of the crimes that could have been committed by the lawmaker.

Also targeted by the charges are Neves’s sister Andrea Neves, his cousin Frederico Pacheco e Mendherson Souza Lima, senator’s Zezé Perrella former adviser, who was caught with money in cash. In the motion, lodged over 10 months ago by then Prosecutor-General Rodrigo Janot, Neves is reported to have asked Batista in a recorded conversation for nearly $590 thousand in bribes in exchange for his political influence.

The obstruction, in turn, took “different forms,” according to Janot—by means of pressure on the government and the Federal Police to name the police officials in charge of conducting the probes under Operation Car Wash—the biggest crackdown on corruption in the country’s history—and actions made possible by his position as Congress member, like interfering with the approval of a bill on abuse of authority and amnesty for politicians in cases of slush funds.

In the beginning of the Supreme Court session, Neves’s attorney Alberto Toron said the amount had come from a loan and that his post at the Senate does not make it illegal for him to borrow money from executives.