Brazilian graft judges threaten to resign over intimidation

Brazilian prosecutors running a giant corruption probe threatened to quit Nov. 30 over what they said was intimidation by members of the graft-plagued Congress, many of whom face investigation.

Deltan Dallagnol, coordinator of the so-called "Operation Car Wash" probe into a gigantic embezzlement and bribery scheme centered on state oil company Petrobras, said that a bill passed in the lower house in the early hours of Nov. 30 amounted to an attack on the judiciary.

"The lower house signaled the end of Car Wash," he said in a press conference alongside other prosecutors who threatened to resign if the bill was not vetoed by President Michel Temer.

The controversial law is ostensibly meant to crack down on undeclared election campaign funds, a common practice in Brazilian politics that has been linked to large-scale corruption.

However, lower house deputies also inserted measures opening the way to prosecute judges for abuse of authority. Judges and prosecutors have branded this as a weapon to reduce the judiciary's independence.

"It would not be possible to keep working on Car Wash if this intimidating law were approved," Dallagnol said.

"Our proposal is to resign collectively if this bill is approved by the president," prosecutor Carlos dos Santos Lima said.

The probe has uncovered multi-billion-dollar embezzlement and bribery involving Petrobras, Brazil's biggest construction companies like Odebrecht, and a host of political parties.

High-ranking figures including former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and some of Brazil's richest men face charges or have already been convicted. Dozens of members of Congress have also come into prosecutors' crosshairs.

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