Federal Police Finds that Lula and Dilma Tried to Obstruct Lava Jato Investigations

02/21/2017 - 10h55

The Federal Police found that former presidents Dilma Rousseff and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, along with former minister Aloizio Mercadante, attempted to obstruct ongoing investigations pertaining to the Lava Jato operation.

The Federal Police is accusing all three of them guilty of obstruction of justice. Mercadante is also being accused of influence-peddling.

The information belongs to a partial report that was submitted to Brazil's Supreme Court last Thursday (16). The report is now in the hands of Edson Fachin, the Supreme Court Judge who is responsible for overseeing the Lava Jato operation.

For Rousseff, the charge relates to her appointment of Lula in March 2016 as her government's chief of staff, a position granting him immunity from all investigations except by the Supreme Court.

In adittion, the investigation took into consideration Lula's appointment to be Dilma's chief of staff last March, a recording of a phone call between Mercadante and ex-senator Delcídio do Amaral, as well as the appointment of minister Marcelo Navarro Ribeiro Dantas to the Superior Court of Justice.

According to statements ex-senator Delcídio do Amaral made to investigators, the purpose of Dantas' appointment was to absolve Marcelo Odebrecht, the heir and former CEO of Odebrecht.

Given that Lula, Dilma and Mercadante are not currently holding office - and, therefore, do not have partial immunity - the report issued by the Federal Police requested that the part referring to Dantas' appointment be separated from the lawsuit so the three of them can be tried in first instance.

According to the police, the evidence indicates that Mercadante tampered with investigations, and that the goal behind Lula's appointment was to obstruct justice, given that he was being investigated at the time.

Lula's lawyers said that such a hypothesis is "legally unfounded" and accused a police chief of persecuting the former president.

Pierpaolo Bottini, Aloizio Mercadante's lawyer, said that he was "surprised" by the Federal Police's statements. Former president Dilma Rousseff could not be reached.

The police report comes the same week that the Supreme Court is to sign off on the nomination of of Moreira Franco as secretary-general of the presidency, a position that provides the same protection from investigation.

However, Franco has been mentioned 43 times by people already arrested within Operation Lava Jato as having benefited from corruption.

Translated by THOMAS MATHEWSON

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