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RIO DE JANEIRO, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- Brazil's Supreme Court Judge Edson Fachin was appointed on Thursday the new rapporteur of the Carwash Operation cases in the court.
Fachin will succeed Judge Teori Zavascki, who died in mid-January in a plane crash on the coast of Rio de Janeiro state. He was chosen for the rapporteur position through a draw, the usual procedure of the Supreme Court to randomly assign cases to a judge, in order to ensure impartiality.
There is a great public pressure for the cases dubbed Operation Carwash, which investigates a huge corruption scheme in the contracts between state-controlled oil giant Petrobras with the private sector, as well as other corruption schemes, to be dealt with as quickly as possible.
Judge Zavascki died days before he validated the testimonies of 77 executives of construction company Odebrecht, who turned State's evidence in exchange for leniency in the process. They reportedly denounced a number of high-profile politicians who participated in the scheme. Though the names of those politicians were not disclosed, even President Michel Temer is rumored to be among them.
In order not to delay the process, the head of the Supreme Court, Judge Carmen Lucia, validated the 77 testimonies and decided to pass Zavascki's case to another Supreme Court judge quickly.
Teori Zavascki's spot in the Supreme Court is still vacant. Another judge will have to be appointed by President Michel Temer and approved by the Congress.
