Speaker of lower house charged in corruption probe

Brazilian prosecutors on Thursday lodged corruption charges against the speaker of the lower house – a key figure in the country’s current political crisis – and also against a former president.

He is accused of taking $5m in bribes to secure contracts with the state oil giant, Petrobras.

Brazil’s attorney general has filed corruption charges against the speaker of the lower house of congress for alleged involvement in a corruption scandal at the country’s state-run Petrobras oil company.

Charges were also brought against six other politicians, according to GloboNews, including former president Sen.

Cunha is a member of the huge Brazilian Democratic Movement Party, or PMDB – the main ally of President Dilma Rousseff’s Workers’ Party in the ruling coalition – and has accused prosecutors of pressuring Camargo into changing his statements, given that Cunha’s name was not mentioned in initial testimony.

The prosecutor’s office said it also laid unspecified charges against former president Fernando Collor de Mello, now a senator.

Reuters reported on Tuesday that Petrobras, as the firm is known, may have to pay record penalties of $1.6 billion or more to settle U.S. criminal and civil probes into its role in a corruption scandal, according to a person recently briefed by the company’s legal advisers. Cunha previously denied the charges. Elected officials and cabinet ministers can only be tried by the highest court in Brazil.

Collor was president from 1990 to 1992, when he resigned hours before his certain impeachment on corruption charges in an influence-peddling scandal.

Collor called the charges speculative on Facebook and said prosecutors had not given him the chance to defend himself.

Mr Cunha said earlier this week that he would remain in his post as Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies even if he was indicted.

“Rousseff has been given some respite, but we can expect some violent retribution from Cunha in the next days and weeks”, said David Fleischer, a professor of politics at the University of Brasilia.

It is now up to the Supreme Court – the only court that can try those with parliamentary privilege – to decide whether they formally accept the charges.

Cunha accuses Rousseff’s government of framing him.