Supreme Court justice brings Temer under scrutiny in Odebrecht probe

Supreme Court Justice Edson Fachin has accepted a request from the office of the prosecutor-general to include President Michel Temer in the probes being conducted as part of Operation Car Wash. Also brought under scrutiny were Chief-of-Staff Eliseu Padilha and the president's Secretary of Government Moreira Franco.

Odebrecht is believed to have been unjustly favored when Padilha and Moreira Franco led the Secretariat for Civil Aviation, from 2013 to 2015.

According to a testimony given by former Odebrecht executive Claudio Melo Filho, a dinner was held at the Jaburu Palace—the official residence of the vice-president—in May, 2014, where the details were arranged for a transfer of $3 million, to be used in the electoral campaign of Temer's Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB).

On Tuesday (Feb.27) Brazil's Prosecutor-General Raquel Dodge asked Edson Fachin to include President Michel Temer on the list of people investigated. Dodge disagreed with former Prosecutor Rodrigo Janot, who decided not to target Temer in the inquiry, as he understood that the president is shielded by the Constitution while in his post. Dodge argues that the Constitution only bans filing charges against the investigated, but not inquiries into a president's doings.

Translated by Fabrício Ferreira