Brazil Chooses New Judge to Lead Petrobras Corruption Probe

The Supreme Court picked its newest member on Thursday to take over the investigations of politicians implicated in Brazil's biggest graft scandal, which is expected to shake the country's establishment and government.

Court officials said Justice Edson Fachin was chosen by random electronic selection from among a group of five of the court's 10 members and will take over the corruption cases from Justice Teori Zavascki, who died in a plane crash two weeks ago.

Fachin's first task will be to act on explosive plea bargain testimony given to prosecutors by 77 executives of engineering conglomerate Odebrecht who have reportedly named dozens of politicians who took kickbacks. They include members of President Michel Temer's government and leaders of his PMDB party.

Fachin, 58, a law professor from Parana state, was appointed to the court by Temer's impeached leftist predecessor Dilma Rousseff but has established a record of independent rulings despite ties to her Workers' Party.

Temer, who waited for the court to decide who would take on the graft cases in order to avoid accusations of political interference, must now choose a replacement for the late Zavascki.