Corrupt Brazilian senators aided by cops: Police

BRASÍLIA: The head of Brazil's Senate police service and three other officers were arrested Friday on charges of helping senators caught in corruption scandals to dodge investigators.
A giant probe into an embezzlement and bribery network centred on state oil company Petrobras has already targeted two ex-presidents, ministers, senior legislators, and some of Brazil's richest men.
The latest suspects are members of the congressional security service, including the Senate force's chief, who "aimed to obstruct investigative operations by the Federal Police against senators and ex-senators, using counter-intelligence technology," the Federal Police said in a statement.
A large number of police vehicles converged outside Congress early Friday as searches were conducted inside.
The G1 news site reported that the four officers conducted sweeps for police listening devices at the homes and offices of Senator Fernando Collor de Mello, who is also a former president, and former senator Jose Sarney and Senator Edison Lobao, both of whom are from current President Michel Temer's centre-right PMDB party.
All three politicians have been implicated in the Petrobras probe, codenamed Operation Carwash.
The police, allegedly working illegally on their behalf, made four visits to the senators' houses and allegedly in at least two cases flew at public expense to their home states to conduct the counter-bugging sweeps.
However Senate President Renan Calheiros, who has also been implicated in the Petrobras scheme, defended the action of the legislature's police force, saying they were only asked to root out "illegal listening devices."
"The Legislative Police carried out their activities within the framework of the constitution," he said in a statement.
The Operation Carwash probe, which has been running almost three years, has exposed a gargantuan kickback scheme involving a cross section of Brazil's political and business elite.
No longer untouchable
Prosecutors have aggressively gone after figures once considered untouchable, using a variety of weapons, especially plea bargains in which suspects give inside information in hopes of getting lesser sentences. Wiretaps have also added to an atmosphere of paranoia in the capital Brasilia.
Earlier this week the former speaker of the lower house of Congress, Eduardo Cunha, was jailed on charges that he took millions of dollars in bribes.
Popular former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is also accused of taking Petrobras-related bribes and faces three separate corruption court cases.
Collor de Mello, who was president from 1990-92 before being impeached and resigning, was accused in August last year of corruption and money laundering.
Late Thursday, the prosecutor general's office gave new details of the charges, saying that Collor de Mello had received at least 29 million reais (US$9.2 million, RM38.50 million) in bribes between 2010 and 2014.
The prosecution document said that his wife Caroline Collor de Mello and seven others were part of criminal group, and that the former president should be removed from his senate seat. — AFP