BRAZIL: Attorney General Nullifies JBS Executives' Plea Bargain Deal

(RTTNews) - Brazil's Attorney General Rodrigo Janot overturned the plea bargain deal signed by Joesley Batista and Ricardo Saud, both former executives at meatpacker JBS, for failing to comply with clauses "which prohibit deliberate omission, bad faith and the duty of transparency between the contracting parties."

As a consequence, both executives lost all of their benefits from the plea bargain. However, the evidence collected from them - which supports a criminal charge against Brazilian President Michel Temer - remains valid, and the courts can use them in ongoing and future criminal proceedings.

Janot said that Batista and Saud failed to cooperate by omitting the existence of audio recordings in which Joesley demonstrates knowledge about crimes performed by others.

Batista and Saud also hid from Janot that the former public prosecutor Marcelo Miller helped them draft the plea-bargain deal proposal while working under the attorney general. Janot's ruling must be approved by Brazil's Federal Supreme Court (STF) Justice Edson Fachin.