Brazil senate head recorded proposing to weaken bribes investigation

Associated Press in Rio de Janeiro
Thursday 26 May 2016 00.17 BST

The president of Brazil’s senate has been put on the defensive with the release of a secretly recorded conversation that reveals him proposing to weaken one of the key tools prosecutors have used to trap politicians and businessmen in a sweeping corruption scandal.

The released transcript and audio, published by the newspaper Folha de S. Paulo, appears to feed widespread suspicions that top lawmakers are trying to stifle investigations into billions of dollars of alleged bribes involving the state oil company, Petrobras.

The conversation shows senate leader Renan Calheiros suggesting legal changes to bar the use of plea bargains for people who have been arrested. Prosecutors have used such deals, offering lighter sentences to persuade suspects to implicate high-ranking businessmen and politicians, including Calheiros.

“You can’t make a plea deal while arrested. That’s the first thing,” Calheiros allegedly said in a wide-ranging conversation about the Petrobras probe with Sergio Machado, an ex-senator and former head of another state oil company, Transpetro. Machado is also being investigated.

The Supreme Federal Tribunal, Brazil’s highest court, is considering seven investigations against Calheiros in the Petrobras probe. Even so, in the recording, Calheiros said he could “negotiate” with the justices a “transition” from president Dilma Rousseff to vice president Michel Temer. He didn’t provide details in the taped conversation.

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