Funeral held for judge killed in small plane crash

pulse

January 21, 2017 8:02 PM

The judge, Teori Zavascki, 68, died Thursday when the light aircraft in which he was flying went down off the coast of Rio de Janeiro state.

Brazilian President Michel Temer (3rd-R) attends the funeral of Supreme Court Justice Teori Zavascki at the Federal Regional Court of the 4th Region, where the wake is being held in Porto Alegre on January 21, 2017

Brazilian President Michel Temer attended a funeral service Saturday for a Supreme Court judge who died in a plane crash while probing a corruption scandal that potentially could implicate him.

The judge, Teori Zavascki, 68, died Thursday when the light aircraft in which he was flying went down off the coast of Rio de Janeiro state, killing all five people on board.

A federal police investigation is underway. The judge's son has questioned whether the plane crash was "too much of a coincidence."

Zavascki had been studying confessions of 77 construction executives involved in the huge corruption scandal at state oil firm Petrobras.

Brazilian media have speculated that the testimony could implicate Temer. Already, much of the country's business and political elite have been snared in the corruption probe.

The judge's compilation of the confessions was to have been completed next month but will now likely be delayed.

The president attended the official funeral service in the southern city of Porto Alegre after a private wake in the morning reserved for Zavascki's close friends, family and colleagues.

Another judge involved in the Petrobras probe, Sergio Moro, attended the wake, and called his deceased colleague "a true hero."

Zavascki was buried after the service.

Temer said he would name a new judge to take Zavascki's place only after the Supreme Court decided who among the current justices would take on the unfinished probe.

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