Brazilian police accuse Temer of receiving bribes

[BRASÍLIA] Brazil's federal police Tuesday said there was solid evidence embattled President Michel Temer received bribes, a legal development that could see him suspended from office.

In a report, the Federal Supreme Court said Mr Temer - who was away in Russia on Tuesday - benefited from bribe funds, even if he did so using someone else to collect or deposit the bribes.

Mr Temer has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.

But Brazil's top court said it had accumulated enough evidence of bribes being paid to merit an investigation into Mr Temer for "passive corruption." Prosecutor Rodrigo Janot will use the report as the foundation of the corruption case against the conservative president.

"Faced with silence from the president and his former assistant, there is irrefutable evidence... showing strongly that passive corruption (on Temer's part) took place," the document said in part.

The report referred to the president's relationship with suspended lawmaker Rodrigo Rocha Loures, who is in jail.

Rocha Loures was filmed with a suitcase stuffed with a US$150,000 payoff from a JBS executive.

The court's report alleges that Rocha Loures accepted bribes from JBS on Mr Temer's behalf.

The president could be suspended if two-thirds of Congress votes to give a green light to the corruption investigation against the president.

AFP