Image copyright AFP Image caption Michel Temer faces several accusations but has denied any wrongdoing

Former Brazilian President Michel Temer has been arrested in São Paulo as part of a massive corruption investigation.

Mr Temer, a 78-year-old lawyer who was in office from 2016 to 2018, is being investigated in several cases.

He has consistently denied any wrongdoing. His arrest was considered imminent after he lost his legal protection when he left office.

Many politicians and business leaders have been convicted or charged as part of the so-called Operation Car Wash.

Mr Temer was arrested in his hometown of São Paulo on Thursday morning local time and will be flown to Rio de Janeiro.

Local media say police had been trying to trace Mr Temer since Wednesday. His former Mining and Energy Minister Moreira Franco was also arrested.

Who is Michel Temer?

Mr Temer, from the centre-right MDB party, took over the Brazilian presidency in August 2016 following the impeachment of leftist Dilma Rousseff, a process in which he played a key role.

While in office, Mr Temer was hit by corruption charges which were blocked by his allies in Congress.

Image copyright AFP/Getty Images Image caption Michel Temer was vice-president to Dilma Rousseff until her impeachment

Deeply unpopular, the former law professor was replaced in January by far-right President Jair Bolsonaro.

What is Operation Car Wash?

"The largest foreign bribery case in history", as it was dubbed by the US Department of Justice, began in March 2014.

It started as a federal police investigation into money laundering at a currency exchange business at a petrol station in Brasilia.

The probe widened and looked into allegations that executives at the state oil company Petrobras had accepted bribes from construction firms in return for awarding them contracts at inflated prices.

The corruption scandal involves millions of dollars in kickbacks and more than 80 politicians and members of the business elite. It provoked huge street protests nationwide.

Operation Car Wash's most high-profile conviction is of former leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who is now serving 12 years in jail for corruption.</s>Former Brazilian President Michel Temer was arrested on Thursday on corruption charges, a dramatic development in a sprawling corruption probe that has roiled Brazil has showed no sign of slowing.

In a statement, the Prosecutors Office in Rio de Janeiro said that Judge Marcelo Breitas had issued an arrest order for Temer and Moreira Franco, a former minister and close ally of Temer. The statement did not detail the charges against the two and a spokeswoman at the Prosecutors Office also declined to specify the charges.

O'Globo Television showed images of the former president being accompanied by police 

 in Sao Paulo, where Temer lives. Helicopter images showed Temer getting out of a police convoy at an airport, presumably to be brought to Rio de Janeiro and processed.

Breitas is overseeing the Rio portion of a massive corruption probe involving kickbacks to politicians and public officials. Since launching in March 2014, the so-called Car Wash investigation has led to the jailing of top businessmen and politicians, including ex-President Lula da Silva.

Brazilian media report that Temer allegedly received over a million Reais from Engevix, through a close friend, ex Colonel Joao Baptista Lima Filho, who was also arrested, as was Franco Moreira, a former minister of Mines and Energy.

Allegedly Engevix was linked to the construction of Brazil's Angra 3 nuclear plant, and thus the corruption probe had the name of Radioactivity. Among charges are criminal association, active and passive corruption, money laundering and fraud in the bidding process.

Apparently Electronuclear, which runs Brazil's nuclear plants power generation contracted AF Consult Ltd (Finland) Brazilian branch and Engevix, and mounted the bribes and money siphoning scheme.</s>RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Former Brazilian President Michel Temer was arrested on Thursday on corruption charges, a dramatic development in a sprawling corruption probe that has roiled Brazil has showed no sign of slowing.

In a statement, the Prosecutors Office in Rio de Janeiro said that Judge Marcelo Breitas had issued an arrest order for Temer and Moreira Franco, a former minister and close ally of Temer.

The statement did not detail the charges against the two and a spokeswoman at the Prosecutors Office also declined to specify the charges.

Globo Television showed images of the former president being accompanied by police in Sao Paulo, where Temer lives. Helicopter images showed Temer getting out of a police convoy at an airport, presumably to be brought to Rio de Janeiro and processed.

Breitas is overseeing the Rio portion of a massive corruption probe involving kickbacks to politicians and public officials. Since launching in March 2014, the so-called Car Wash investigation has led to the jailing of top businessmen and politicians, including ex-President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

"The party hopes that the Justice Department re-establishes individual liberties and the presumption of innocence," it read.

Temer, who was vice president, came to the presidency in 2016 after President Dilma Rousseff was impeached and ousted from office for mismanaging the federal budget.

From the get-go, Temer's administration was hit with several scandals, including some involving the president himself.

Three times, prosecutors charged Temer with corruption. Because he was a sitting president, he could only be tried if two-thirds of the lower chamber in Congress agreed. Temer twice mustered enough support in Congress to avoid prosecution and his term ended before the third case proceeded far enough for Congress to vote.

Temer left office on Jan. 1 and no longer has the partial immunity that helped him avoid prosecution.

Asked about looming cases against him in December, Temer said he wasn't worried and did not believe he would be arrested.</s>RIO DE JANEIRO — Former Brazilian President Michel Temer was arrested on Thursday on corruption charges, a dramatic development in a sprawling graft probe that has roiled Latin America’s largest nation and shows no sign of slowing.

In a statement, the Prosecutor’s Office in Rio de Janeiro said that Judge Marcelo Breitas had issued an arrest order for Temer, as well as Moreira Franco, a former minister and close ally of Temer, and eight others.

Construction company Engevix paid Temer bribes in exchange for a contract to build a nuclear power plant in the city of Angra dos Reis in the southern part of Rio de Janeiro state, prosecutors said.

One of the Engevix executives told prosecutors in a plea bargain testimony that he paid more than $300,000 in 2014 to a company owned by a close Temer associate, Col. Joao Baptista Lima Filho. An arrest warrant was also issued for Lima Filho.

Globo Television showed images of the former president being accompanied by police in Sao Paulo, where Temer lives. Helicopter images showed Temer getting out of a police convoy at an airport, presumably to be brought to Rio de Janeiro and processed.

Breitas is overseeing the Rio portion of a massive corruption probe involving kickbacks to politicians and public officials. Since launching in March 2014, the so-called Car Wash investigation has led to the jailing of top businessmen and politicians, including ex-President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who Brazilians universally call Lula.

Former Judge Sergio Moro, who oversaw many Car Wash cases and became an internationally known anti-corruption crusader, stepped down at the end of last year to become justice minister.

Breitas’ decision to arrest Temer will go a long way to answering questions about the future of the probe.

“If Lula and Temer can go to jail, who cannot?” said Carlos Melo, political science professor at Insper University in Sao Paulo. “There are several formerly high-ranking politicians not in office at the moment, which makes them more exposed to police investigations.”</s>RIO DE JANEIRO: Brazil's ex-president Michel Temer was arrested on Thursday (Mar 21) as part of a sprawling anti-corruption probe that has already claimed dozens of political and corporate scalps, media reports said.

Temer, the predecessor of current President Jair Bolsonaro, was Brazil's most unpopular leader ever and faced a number of corruption accusations on leaving office last year.

Police arrested Temer in Sao Paulo on the order of a federal criminal judge, reports said. Former mines and energy minister Moreira Franco was also detained.

The so-called Car Wash investigation uncovered a vast graft operation involving Petrobras and major construction companies and bribes to politicians of several parties.

Temer, a centre-right politician, took over as a caretaker figure after the last Workers Party president, Dilma Rousseff, was impeached and removed from office in 2016.</s>RIO DE JANEIRO - Former Brazilian President Michel Temer was arrested Thursday on corruption charges, a dramatic development in a sprawling graft probe that has roiled Latin America’s largest nation and shows no sign of slowing.

Judge Marcelo Bretas issued an arrest order for the ex-president as well as former Cabinet minister and Temer ally Moreira Franco and eight others.

According to the prosecutors, construction company Engevix paid Temer bribes in exchange for a contract to build a nuclear power plant in the city of Angra dos Reis in the southern part of Rio de Janeiro state.

Prosecutors said in a statement that one Engevix executive said in plea bargain testimony that he paid more than $300,000 in 2014 to a company owned by a close Temer associate, Col. Joao Baptista Lima Filho. An arrest warrant was also issued for Lima Filho.

While the charges against Temer were narrow, prosecutors told reporters during a press conference that the former president and several associates had been engaging in pay-for-play deals involving kickbacks since the 1980s that resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes.

“This is a criminal organization that has been up until now led by Michel Temer,” said Fabiana Schneider, one of the prosecutors.

In his arrest order, Bretas wrote that arresting Temer was necessary to make sure he didn’t destroy evidence.

The case is one of 10 criminal investigations into Temer, a career politician known for his ability to wheel and deal behind the scenes in the capital of Brasilia. He has denied any wrongdoing.

“Justice was created for all and everyone must respond for his own actions,” President Jair Bolsonaro, a far-right former army captain who ran on promises to crack down on endemic corruption, told reporters while on a state visit to Chile.

Temer was taken into custody in Sao Paulo, where he lives, and taken by plane to Rio de Janeiro, where he would be processed.

“It is evident the total lack of foundations for the arrest, which serves only to display the former president as a trophy to those that, under the pretext of fighting corruption, mock the basic rules of the constitution,” Temer lawyer Eduardo Pizarro Carnelos said in a statement.

Bretas, the judge, is overseeing the Rio portion of a massive corruption probe involving kickbacks to politicians and public officials. Since launching in March 2014, the so-called Car Wash investigation has led to the jailing of top businessmen and politicians, including ex-President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who Brazilians universally call Lula.

Former Judge Sergio Moro, who oversaw many Car Wash cases and became an internationally known anti-corruption crusader, stepped down at the end of last year to become justice minister.

Many worried that Moro’s absence could hurt the investigations. And the Car Wash probe has suffered a handful of recent defeats, including a decision by the Supreme Court to allow some corruption cases involving campaign finance, which figured heavily in the probe, to be tried by electoral courts.

This week, Moro himself suffered a setback when the speaker of the lower Chamber of Deputies in Congress slammed a tough-on-crime bill the former judge put forward and said it would only be considered after a major reform to the pension system.

Bretas’ decision to arrest Temer will go a long way to answering questions about the future of the probe.

“If Lula and Temer can go to jail, who cannot?” said Carlos Melo, political science professor at Insper University in Sao Paulo. “There are several formerly high-ranking politicians not in office at the moment, which makes them more exposed to police investigations.”

Temer, who was vice president, came to the presidency in 2016 after President Dilma Rousseff was impeached and ousted from office for mismanaging the federal budget.

Rousseff and allies in her Workers’ Party accused Temer of orchestrating her ouster, which he denied.

From the get-go, Temer’s administration was hit with several scandals, including some involving the president himself. Temer’s approval ratings were routinely below 10 percent, and he was frequently booed.

In the course of less than two years, three times the attorney general charged Temer, twice with corruption and one with obstruction of justice. Because he was a sitting president, he could only be tried if two-thirds of the lower chamber in Congress agreed. Temer twice mustered enough support in Congress to avoid prosecution and his term ended before the third case proceeded far enough for Congress to vote.

Temer, 78, left office on Jan. 1 and no longer has the partial immunity that helped him avoid prosecution.

Asked about looming cases against him in December, Temer said he wasn’t worried and did not believe he would be arrested.

“I’m calm. I am not the least bit worried,” Temer said. “Those (charges) are such absurd things that a more objective and less passionate mind will see that and will say, ‘those allegations are irrelevant.’”

Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</s>Brazil’s former President Michel Temer was arrested on Thursday as part of the sweeping anti-corruption investigation known as “Car Wash”, police said.

According to the Federal Police office in Rio de Janeiro, authorities carried out 10 arrest warrants, including that of Michel Temer, as well as 26 additional search warrants on Thursday.

Local media reported the former president was arrested in his house in Sao Paulo and flown to the Federal Police office in Rio.

Temer, who was president from 2016 to 2018, was hit with corruption charges during his presidency regarding management contracts of several ports in Sao Paulo. Those charges were blocked by his allies in Congress. His arrest was imminent, however, after he left office because he was no longer afforded certain legal protections.

Police said on Thursday that Temer’s arrest stems from new charges related to “crimes of corruption, criminal organisations and money laundry” in the management of a nuclear plant in Rio.

“I’m certain [Temer’s] lawyers will file a habeas corpus request so he can continue to answer to authorities in freedom,” lawyer Luiz Felipe Panelli told Al Jazeera.

Panelli said the judge could have decided to keep Temer under house arrest or other forms of custody.

“This type of arrest only happens when there’s immediate danger the suspect can flee or that he is still committing the crime,” he added.

Since launching in March 2014, the Car Wash investigation has led to the jailing of top businessmen and politicians, including ex-President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

An arrest warrant for Moreira Franco, the former minister for mines and energy, was also issued on Thursday.

Franco’s lawyer told Al Jazeera the warrant was unnecessary because the former minister has told authorities of his whereabouts, and has said, “He is available [to help]the ongoing investigations, has provided testimonials and has defended himself in writing when necessary.”

Local media reported that Temer’s party, Brazilian Democratic Movement, said in a statement that it “regrets the Justice [system]is moving forward with an inquiry in which it has been demonstrated there are no irregularities by the former president and former minister”.

MDB did not immediately respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment.</s>Brazil's former president Michel Temer was arrested on Thursday in an investigation over suspected corruption involving the construction of nuclear plant Angra 3, prosecutors told Reuters.

The arrest of Temer, who denies any wrongdoing, was also confirmed by his lawyer.

Several other Brazilian politicians and businessmen have been convicted or charged in the so-called anti-graft Operation Car Wash.

President from 2016 to 2018, Temer took office following the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, for whom he served as vice-president for six years. In January, Jair Bolsonaro was elected to succeed Temer as Brazil's head of state.

This is not the first time Temer has been hit with corruption charges. During his presidency, he was accused of graft but the charges were blocked by his allies in the lower house of Congress. The legislative body has to authorise charges against a sitting president.

Another former Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is serving a 12-year prison sentence after being convicted of corruption.</s>RIO DE JANEIRO, March 21 — Brazil’s ex-president Michel Temer was arrested today as part of a sprawling anti-corruption probe that has already claimed dozens of political and corporate scalps, media reports said.

Temer, the predecessor of current President Jair Bolsonaro, was Brazil’s most unpopular leader ever and faced a number of corruption accusations on leaving office last year. — AFP</s>Brazil’s ex-president Michel Temer was arrested Thursday, an official said, as part of a sprawling anti-corruption probe that has already claimed dozens of political and corporate scalps.

Police arrested Temer, the 78-year-old predecessor of current far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, in Sao Paulo, a spokesman for the federal prosecutor’s office in Rio de Janeiro told AFP.

Former mines and energy minister Moreira Franco was also detained along with six others, including business people, G1 reported.

Temer, Brazil’s most unpopular leader ever, faced a number of corruption accusations on leaving office last year.

Launched in 2014, the Car Wash investigation uncovered a vast graft operation involving Petrobras and major construction companies and bribes to politicians of several parties.

Temer is just the latest former president caught up in the probe that has rocked Brazil’s business and political elites.

The center-right politician took over as a caretaker figure after the last Workers Party president, Dilma Rousseff, was impeached and removed from office in 2016.

Former leftist president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is serving a lengthy jail term after being found guilty in two corruption cases.

Far-right leader Bolsonaro campaigned on a hard line against corruption and crime and his victory in October’s election was in part attributed to the Car Wash investigation.
Former President of Brazil Michel Temer is arrested as part of an investigation into corruption. Former Governor of Rio de Janeiro Moreira Franco is also arrested.