Former Brazilian President charged with corruption

Brazilian prosecutors have charged ex-President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva with being the “maximum commander” of a vast corruption scheme at the state oil company Petrobras.

This marks the first time Lula has been charged by federal prosecutors for his involvement in the massive graft scheme at the oil company.

Deltan Dallagnol, a public prosecutor, told a news conference that the Petrobras scheme had caused an estimated 42 billion real (€11.21 billion) in losses.

According to the Guardian, Lula’s lawyers that prosecutors lacked evidence to back up their accusations, calling them “part of political persecution to stop him running in the 2018 election”.

Dallagnol said Lula was being charged with corruption and money laundering as part of the scheme. “The Petrobras graft scheme aimed at keeping the Workers’ party in power by criminal means,” he said.

Prosecutors allege that Lula had personally received around 3.7 million reals (€990,000) in bribes, including a luxury apartment on the coast of São Paulo from engineering and construction firms OAS.