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RIO DE JANEIRO, March 22 (Xinhua) -- Brazilian Prosecutor General Rodrigo Janot asked the Supreme Court (STF) to open an investigation into nine ministers over their suspected links to the Petrobras corruption ring and the Odebrecht construction company.
Janot's requests came after 77 Odebrecht executives agreed in February to reveal corrupt links between the company and government officials in exchange for reductions on their sentences.
Earlier, Supreme Court Justice Edson Fachin, who supervises the case, received a similar request Tuesday to investigate 83 deputies, senators and ministers who all benefit from legal immunity, which means only the STF can prosecute them. Fachin will analyze the 83 requests and decide whether to open an investigation.
The Globo daily accessed the list Janot gave the STF and named the ministers as Aloysio Nunes (Foreign affairs), Blairo Maggi (Agriculture), Eliseu Padilha (Presidency), Moreira Franco (Secretariat-General of Government), Bruno Araujo (Cities), Gilberto Kassab (Science and Technology) and Marcos Pereira (Development). Two other ministers' names have not been revealed.
Petrobras is Brazil's national oil company. It registered a loss of 14.824 billion reais (4.94 billion U.S. dollars) in 2016, its third straight year of negative growth.
This is partly because of the vast corruption scheme within its ranks, with dozens of officials and executives arrested for embezzling billions of U.S. dollars between 2004 and 2014.
