BRASÍLIA: Brazil's chief prosecutor dealt a fresh blow Thursday to President Dilma Rousseff and predecessor Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, saying his cabinet appointment was an attempt to avoid arrest and disrupt investigations.
The latest twist in a roiling political saga comes as Rousseff faces impeachment proceedings in Congress over accusations of manipulating the government's books to mask budget shortfalls during her 2014 re-election campaign.
Lula's controversial appointment, which has been temporarily blocked by a Supreme Court judge, would give the former president ministerial immunity from trial in criminal court on separate charges related to a massive corruption scandal at state oil company Petrobras.
But Prosecutor General Rodrigo Janot, in a report filed with the court, recommended it annul the appointment. The full court must now rule whether Lula -- a left-wing icon and founder of the ruling Workers' Party -- can take up the job.
"There is sufficient evidence to state that there was a deviation of purpose in the presidential decree" naming Lula as chief of staff, Janot said in the report, which will come as a blow to both Rousseff and ally Lula.
Lula is accused of accepting a luxury condo and a country home as bribes from construction companies caught up in the multi-billion-dollar graft scandal that has upended Brazilian politics.
Janot said Lula's nomination was aimed at "disrupting the progress of the criminal investigations in the Car Wash case," the name of the Petrobras probe.
It came hours after Rousseff called for a "grand pact" to unify the country.
"Brazil has already overcome difficult moments by making pacts," she said in the capital Brasilia, promising to back "absolutely necessary political reforms" provided she were allowed to stay in power.
"That is the pact I'm looking for."
Although the embattled president did not give any detail about what she was proposing, her comments appeared more conciliatory than in recent days, when she has repeatedly accused the opposition of mounting a coup attempt.
But Everaldo Moraes, a political scientist at the University of Brasilia, said Rousseff was grasping at straws.
"Rousseff feels her situation is worse every day. Impeachment is taking shape and it's natural that she tries to raise the tone, but I think the moment of pacts as a way to seek support has passed," he said.
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