Brazil's powerful speaker in the lower house of Congress, Eduardo Cunha, will be tried on bribery charges, the Supreme Court said Thursday, injecting new drama into a sprawling corruption crisis.

Cunha, a key opponent of President Dilma Rousseff, is accused of taking $5 million in bribes as part of a vast embezzlement and bribery network centered on the country's national oil company Petrobras.

The Supreme Court's 10 judges voted unanimously to indict Cunha on charges that he took the bribes for facilitating a $1 billion contract to build two oil drilling ships for Petrobras.

Cunha, who rejects the charges, is also being investigated by the congressional ethics committee over allegedly lying to Congress about possessing secret Swiss bank accounts.

Considered a master backroom dealer, Cunha is part of the PMDB party, which is in an uncomfortable alliance with Rousseff's Workers' Party.

However, he has split off to make himself the fulcrum of an anti-Rousseff movement and last year initiated impeachment procedures against her for allegedly breaking government fiscal laws.

His downfall would help Rousseff, who is also struggling against allegations in the electoral court that she improperly financed her 2014 re-election.

The probe into the Petrobras corruption, dubbed Operation Car Wash, has snared a Who's Who of Brazilian politicians and businessmen, including numerous high-ranking figures from Rousseff's party.

Cunha could technically hang on to his post as speaker, even during a trial, but is facing pressure to step down.
Source :AFP