Photo: Reuters
Brazil’s top prosecutor has charged former Presidents Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff with forming a criminal organization to divert funds from the country’s state oil company, the BBC reports.
Prosecutor Rodrigo Janot said Lula, Ms Rousseff and six fellow Workers’ Party members committed a series of crimes involving Petrobras from 2002 to 2016.
The ex-presidents deny the accusations.
These are the first criminal charges against Ms Rousseff, who was impeached in 2016 for breaking budgetary laws.
The charges are related to the sprawling Operation Car Wash that uncovered a scheme in which Brazil’s biggest construction firms overcharged Petrobras for building contracts.
