Brazil police arrest presidential aide in World Cup probe as anti-corruption protest is staged

Record ID: 875664

  • Title: Brazil police arrest presidential aide in World Cup probe as anti-corruption protest is staged
  • Date: 23rd May 2017
  • Summary: BRASILIA, BRAZIL (FILE) (REUTERS) SIGN FOR MANE GARRINCHA STADIUM INVOLVED IN PROBE CONSTRUCTION VEHICLE ON PITCH DURING EARLY CONSTRUCTION WORKS OF STADIUM WORKER SHOVELLING DIRT INTO WHEELBARROW GENERAL VIEW OF PITCH AND INTERIOR OF STADIUM DURING EARLY CONSTRUCTION WORKS SCAFFOLDING AROUND TOWERS DURING CONSTRUCTION OF STADIUM WORKERS ON SCAFFOLDING AND MOVING MACHINERY VARIOUS OF FORMER CHIEF OF STAFF, AGNELO QUEIROZ, AND FIFA GENERAL SECRETARY, JEROME VALCKE, VISITING STADIUM DURING CONSTRUCTION SCREEN INSIDE STADIUM INTERIOR OF FINISHED STADIUM CLOSE-UP OF STADIUM SEATS SEATS ON BENCH FOR PLAYERS
  • Embargoed: 6th June 2017 21:19
  • Keywords: Michel Temer stadium 2014 World Cup
  • Location: BRASILIA, BRAZIL
  • City: BRASILIA, BRAZIL
  • Country: Brazil
  • Topics: Crime/Law/Justice,Crime
  • Reuters ID: LVA0026I28VNN
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text:Brazilian police on Tuesday (May 23) arrested a presidential aide and two ex-governors as part of an investigation into the 2014 World Cup's most expensive stadium, another black eye for the country's political establishment that adds pressure on beleaguered President Michel Temer.
    Tadeu Filippelli, a special adviser in Temer's Cabinet, and former Federal District governors Jose Roberto Arruda and Agnelo Queiroz were taken into custody early in the day, a police communique said.
    Temer's office said in a statement that it would fire Filippelli.
    Reuters could not immediately reach Filippelli, Arruda and Queiroz or their representatives. The Federal District encompasses the capital Brasilia.
    Renovation of the Brasilia stadium for the 2014 World Cup cost about 1.5 billion reais ($459.38 million), prosecutors and police said in a statement, and an auditing court has said the construction included rampant overbilling.
    It was the second-most expensive soccer arena in the world after the reconstruction of Wembley Stadium in London, according to the local World Cup committee's documents on spending.
    All the while on Tuesday red masks were lined up on the grass outside Congress in an anti-corruption protest run by NGO Rio in Peace, whose organizer Antonio Carlos, said the political class should show more shame.
    A total of 595 masks were placed in the grass on thin metal poles, representing the 513 lawmakers of the Lower House, along with 81 Senators and the head of state, Michel Temer.
    Of that total, only 95 were not painted red - the colour intended to depict the politicians' shame - representing the few the organisation believes to have saved itself from the sweeping scandal. Passerby and engineer, Lincon Fonseca, however, said even those who offer a ray of hope to the nation seem to end up embroiled in the scandals.
    Temer has resisted growing calls for his resignation after the disclosure of a recorded conversation in which he appears to condone the payment of hush money to a jailed lawmaker in a separate corruption probe.
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