The Supreme Court of Brazil ruled Thursday that it will take over the corruption probe against former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva instead of returning the case to federal Judge Serio Moro. Senior officials are not immune [Business Standard report] from prosecution, but can only be tried before the Supreme Court. Judge Sergio Moro has been leading the corruption case relating to the Petrobras scandal and has been accused of unfairly targeting the former president. Current President Dilma Rousseff’s appointment of Lula as the former’s chief of state, has remained in “limbo” [AP report] for weeks awaiting a decision by the Supreme Court to authorize and lift the injunction that is currently preventing Silva from taking office. Lula’s appointment as Chief of State would afford him greater legal protections under Brazilian law, granting the Supreme Court the only institution to authorize an investigation, detention and indictment of a Cabinet member.

Last month, a judge for the Brazilian Supreme Court upheld [JURIST report] a ruling blocking Lula from taking a cabinet post. Brazil’s political establishment has been in turmoil as many powerful politicians including former presidents have been recently brought to the center of embarrassing corruption investigations. Also in March, Brazil’s Supreme Court unanimously authorized [JURIST report] the corruption charges against member of Congress Eduardo Cunha to proceed. Eduardo Cunha was implicated in the Petrobras scandal. Rousseff herself has been implicated in that very same scandal and has been at the center of impeachment proceedings [JURIST report] for months. She spoke against the accusations against her earlier this week, stating that she will take legal action [JURIST report] against the senator who made statements against her for defamation. More than 100 individuals and 50 politicians have been arrested in connection to the Petrobras scandal.