BRASILIA, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Gilmar Mendes, who sits on Brazil's Supreme Court (STF), on Friday said the Court should discuss further the confession made by JBS owner Joesley Batista, which placed corruption allegations on President Michel Temer.
Speaking to the press, Mendes said that only Edson Fachin, who oversees Operation Lava Jato (Car Wash), had approved Batista's confession but that all STF justices needed to do so as well.
On May 18, Fachin accepted Batista's confession, including the recording of a conversation with Temer, in which the president could seemingly be heard signing off on bribing judges, prosecutors and former Speaker Eduardo Cunha.
It led the STF to open an investigation into Temer for obstruction of justice.
"It seems to me that, for this case, as it involves the president of the republic, we will certainly have to discuss them with the entire court," said Mendes.
This week, Brazil's prosecutor-general Rodrigo Janot asked Justice Edson Fachin to approve calling for Temer to give a deposition. Janot also asked Fachin to define a date for this deposition but the justice has not responded to the request so far.
Temer's defense team has fought back against the deposition request, saying that the analysis of the audio recording had not been completed.
Last week, Temer refused to resign, saying that the tape had been doctored and that he had done nothing wrong.
