In Brazil, a judge ordered the release of former head of state Michel Temer. There is no legal justification for the recent arrest of the 78-year-old, judged by the lawyer Antonio Ivan Athié on Monday.
With that, the judge anticipated a trial scheduled for Wednesday. "While investigating the case, I found it unjustifiable to wait another two days," Athié said, according to news portal G1.
Temer, who was president from 2016 to 2018, is being investigated as part of Latin America's biggest corruption scandal, "Lava Jato" (car wash). Among other things, he is said to have threaded the payment of bribes to the then Energy Minister Moreira Franco when awarding an energy project.
Franco was also arrested last Thursday. The judge also ordered his release.
In the course of the "Lava Jato" investigations around the parastatal oil company Petrobras is determined in Brazil against dozens of politicians, officials and entrepreneurs. Against the conservative politician Temer, who at the end of 2018 after two and a half years at the head of Brazil had left his office, had already been loud allegations of corruption during his term.
Leftwing ex-president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was sentenced to several years' imprisonment in 2017 for his role in the corruption scandal, and was imprisoned the following year after the appeal was exhausted. That's why he eventually withdrew his candidacy for the presidential election in October 2018. The winner of the election was right-wing politician Jair Bolsonaro.