Judge orders arrest of exec linked to Brazil president

(MENAFN- AFP) Brazil's Supreme Court ordered the re-arrest of a businessman in a corruption scandal that has implicated the country's President Michel Temer, in a ruling made public Sunday.

A judge accused JBS meatpacking executive Joesley Batista of hiding evidence in a probe of allegations that Temer approved the payment of hush money to a corrupt politician.

Judge Edinson Fachin said in a written ruling there was evidence that Batista and another suspect "omitted... information that they were obliged to provide" as part of a plea bargain.

The JBS affair rocked Temer's government this year just as it was pushing reforms to try to drag Latin America's biggest economy out of its worst ever recession.

Fachin's ruling suspended the suspects' provisional release under the plea bargain and ordered them to be detained for five days.

Brazil's congress rejected a case brought by prosecutors to try Temer over the allegations. His opponents were hoping the JBS plea deal would yield further evidence against Temer.

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