Heavyweight pair in strife

BRAZIL’S top prosecutor has charged former presidents Luis Inacio Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff along with fellow Workers Party members with forming a criminal organisation.

The prosecutor, Rodrigo Janot, alleges eight members of the Workers Party, including Lula and Rousseff, committed a series of crimes involving state-owned oil firm Petrobras such as cartel formation and corruption.

They are the first criminal charges to be levelled against Rousseff, who was impeached in 2016 for breaking budgetary laws.