BRAZIL:Brazil's supreme court voted on Monday to put president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's former chief of staff on trial on corruption charges, the closest ally of Mr Lula to be tried over a vote-buying scheme.
The judges voted unanimously to put on trial Jose Dirceu, the architect of Mr Lula's rise to power who resigned from the cabinet in June 2005 because of accusations that he headed a scheme to pay deputies in congress to support the ruling Workers Party (PT).
They also voted to put Delubio Soares, the former treasurer of Mr Lula's party, on trial on corruption charges. They both could face up to 12 years in prison if found guilty.
Brazil's chief public prosecutor, Antonio Fernando Souza, charged Mr Dirceu with buying the political support of nine party leaders in the lower house of congress. The prosecutor accused PT leaders, bankers, and publicists of forming a "criminal organisation" that used public and private funds to obtain political favours.
Mr Dirceu's lawyer, Jose Luis de Oliveira Lima, said there are no facts supporting the charge against his client.
"I have learned since law school that a court decision must be respected and followed, which doesn't mean that I agree with it," Oliveira Lima said. Mr Dirceu and former PT president Jose Genoino were absolved on Friday of embezzlement charges, but face other accusations the court has yet to consider.
Mr Lula's party has admitted using illicit funds to finance election campaigns of its members and allies in congress between 2002 and 2004, but denied the money was used to bribe legislators. Few politicians accused of corruption spend time in jail in Brazil. Some are absolved and many manage to stall lawsuits in a notoriously slow judicial system.
Mr Lula has said he will not seek a third consecutive term as president, but will try to influence the choice of his successor who might come from outside his ruling party.
"When a political leader begins to think he is indispensable, and cannot be substituted, a little dictatorship is born," Mr Lula said in an interview in O Estado de S.Paulonewspaper on Sunday.
The former factory worker, who was re-elected last year, said that when his term finished in December 2010: "I'm going to make my grilled rabbit, which I haven't done for five years."