Brazil's Lula faces new corruption charges: reports
Brazilian ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva faced yet more corruption allegations Wednesday with charges that he helped a nephew win a lucrative contract from construction giant Odebrecht, reports said.
According to major Brazilian newspapers, federal police have filed formal charges accusing Lula of using his influence while in office to help his nephew Taiguara Rodrigues' company Exergia win the contract in Angola.
The reports in Globo and Estadao de Sao Paolo said Rodrigues' company won the contract in 2012 from the Brazilian construction giant which is at the center of a sprawling corruption investigation shaking Brazilian politics.
Rodrigues, the former head of Odebrecht, Marcelo Odebrecht, and seven other executives, were charged with money laundering and corruption in the same investigation, Estadao reported.
Federal police would not confirm the charges.
However, the Lula Institute, which represents the ex-president, said in a statement that lawyers would "analyze the document from the federal police, which was leaked by the media and revealed in a sensational way before the defense had access."
The institute said Lula was victim of a "media massacre... to try and destroy the image of the most popular president in the country's history."
Lula, 70, has been named by prosecutors as the mastermind of a huge corruption scheme in which state oil company Petrobras was systematically plundered by a network of executives, politicians and contractors such as Odebrecht.
He faces two court cases already. One concerns alleged bribes taken from OAS, another construction company that allegedly benefitted from sweetheart deals with Petrobras, and an obstruction of justice case.
Lula has repeatedly stated his innocence and says he is being targeted in order to prevent him from trying to return to power in the 2018 presidential elections.
Lula served from 2003-2010 and left office with sky high ratings and international approval for his work in lifting tens of millions of Brazilians from poverty, while presiding over an economic boom.
Opinion polls show that he remains one of the most popular potential candidates for 2018.
However, the Workers' Party, which he founded, was trounced in municipal elections on Sunday. Lula's legacy has been severely tainted by the corruption scandal and the steep decline of the economy.
His chosen successor, Dilma Rousseff, was impeached and removed from the presidency in August after being found guilty of breaking budget laws. Her former vice president and political enemy, center-right veteran Michel Temer, took over the presidency.
If Lula is convicted of a crime he could be barred from political office for a period stretching well beyond the 2018 elections.