Asserting that Brazil has learned to be rigorous in meting out justice to the corrupt, President Dilma Rousseff has promised that all investigations into alleged corruption in the state-owned Petrobras oil company would be transparent and conform strictly to the law.
Rousseff referred briefly to the Petrobras scandal during a radio and television appearance on Sunday to mark International Women's Day in which she focussed mainly on fiscal adjustment, Spanish news agency Efe reported.
"With courage and even suffering, Brazil has learned to carry out social justice in favour of the poor, and apply harshly the hand of justice against the corrupt," said Rousseff.
Mention of the scandal was interpreted as a response to accusations from political leaders that the government was interfering with and influencing investigations under way by the public prosecutor and federal police.
Rousseff refrained from referring to the Supreme Court's decision to order an investigation of 49 people, including 34 parliamentarians and 12 former legislators, over diversion of resources from Petrobras.
Friday's disclosure of the list of suspects put the government on the defensive, as important former collaborators of Rousseff, including four ministers, the party treasurer and the coordinator of her 2010 election campaign, were all named.
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Politicians who allegedly benefited from the Petrobras diversions include 12 senators, 22 legislators and 12 former legislators from five parties, overwhelmingly from the ruling coalition.
The Petrobras scandal has been under investigation for nearly a year and three former directors of the oil company and a group of executives from large companies doing business with Petrobras have already been imprisoned.
The businessmen conspired to earn contracts from Petrobras at inflated prices, and were alleged to have shared part of their corrupt earnings with state directors of Petrobas and with the politicians named, either secretly or via legal "donations" to their electoral campaigns.