The exmandatario of Brazil Michel Temer was released by an order of a judge

The fear, designated by the Office of the Prosecutor as the alleged perpetrator of a "criminal organization", left the headquarters of the federal police in Rio de Janeiro around 18:40 (21H40 GMT) in a police car with tinted windows.

Judge Antonio Ivan Athié received a writ of habeas corpus filed by the defense of Temer and justified in his letter that, despite the "indications" against the exmandatario, referring to so-called pots-de wine received in 2014, the security detention (until a court case) has no legal basis.

"While it is admitted that there are clues that may incriminate the people involved, they do not serve to justify detention on remand because in addition to being [indicios] old, it is not proven that the accused attempted to undermine public order, [o] it would hide evidence or hinder " a possible criminal procedure, said Athié.

"I'm not against the call [operación] Lava Jato, on the other hand, I also want to see our country free from the corruption that afflicts it. But, without respecting the constitutional guarantees, guarantees for all, (…) in violation of the rules, there is no legitimacy in the fight against this scourge, "added the magistrate.

The release order also applies to the former Minister of Mines and Energy, Moreira Franco, as well as other suspects imprisoned in the same operation, confirmed the Federal Regional Court TRF2 of Rio de Janeiro .

The prosecutor's office said it would make a call to keep the prisons. The decision will be badyzed in detail – by a date yet to be defined – by two other TRF2 judges, who may or may not accept the release determined by Athié.

Temer, 78, He was arrested in Sao Paulo last Thursday and transferred to Rio de Janeiro by judge Marcelo Bretas., responsible in this state of the mega-operation Lava Jato against corruption.

The case concerns alleged bribes received in 2014 in exchange for construction contracts at the Angra 3 nuclear power plant in the south of the state of Rio.

The Federal Public Prosecutor's Office (FPO) investigates "bribery, embezzlement and money-laundering offenses" through "illegal payments" by an employer "to the criminal organization run by Michel Temer ".

Pre-trial detention was justified, according to the MPF, by the suspicion that the alleged gang was still "in full activity" and that it would have "obtained the promise, payment or deviation of R $ 1,800 million compared to the organization "(about $ 470 million at the current rate).

The decision to release him "acknowledged arbitrariness and violation of procedures," said the Brazilian Democratic Movement (MDB), party of Temer and Moreira Franco, which since the end of the military dictatorship (1964-1985 ) ally of almost all governments, whether left-wing or center-right.

Fear that suspicions of corruption are also being investigated as part of other processes has become the second Brazilian ex-president arrested since the return of democracy.

The first was Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (2003-2010), Workers' Party (PT, left), who served from April 2018 a 12-year sentence and one month in prison for pbadive bribery and money laundering. in the course of the Lava Jato operation, the largest investigation into the corruption of the history of Brazil.

Rented since 2014 for daring to take it to prominent businessmen and politicians – previously considered "untouchable" -, the Lava Jato operation has also been criticized.

According to some jurists, it makes excessive use of tools such as prison orders (ostensibly executed and usually broadcast live on television) or so-called "prize-winning" denunciations, whereby the people involved betray their accomplices in exchange of a reduction. of their sentences.