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Brazil attorney general requests probes into top politicians

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FILE - In this April 26, 2016 file photo, a demonstrator hold a sign that reads in Portuguese "1,314,003 people require the mandate of Eduardo Cunha be annulled" during a protest against the president of House Speaker Eduardo Cunha, before the ethics committee of the Chamber of Deputies in Brasilia, Brazil. Cunha was named among many top officials to be investigated for corruption by the Supreme Court, authorized by Brazil\'s attorney general according to Brazilian news reports on Monday, May 2, 2016. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres, File)

RIO DE JANEIRO – The Brazilian attorney general’s office said Monday that it has asked the country’s highest court to authorize corruption investigations into a prominent opposition figure and other top politicians.

Attorney General Rodrigo Janot based the request on plea bargain testimony by a prominent senator ensnared in the sprawling corruption probe centred on Brazil’s state-run Petrobras oil company.

His office confirmed those targeted include opposition presidential candidate Aecio Neves, who narrowly lost the 2014 election to President Dilma Rousseff, who is facing an impeachment effort in Congress.

News reports said top officials in the opposition PMDB party, including party head Sen. Romero Juca, are also objects of Janot’s requests, but the attorney general’s office did not confirm their identities.

Vice-President Michel Temer, who is a PMDB member, is in line to assume the presidency if Rousseff is impeached.

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