Brazil's president seeks to postpone interrogation by police

Brazil's President Michel Temer gestures during a inauguration ceremony of the new Minister of Justice, Torquato Jardim, at the Planalto Palace, in Brasilia, Brazil May 31, 2017. [Photo/Agencies]

RIO DE JANEIRO - The defense team of Brazil's President Michel Temer on Wednesday asked Supreme Court Justice Edson Fachin to postpone the president's written interrogation by police.

The request argued that the interrogation, which is scheduled to happen within ten days, should be postponed until the police has finished analyzing the recording.

Temer has said that the tape has been doctored and that he has done nothing wrong.

This is the second time Temer's lawyers sought to postpone the interrogation, since the Supreme Court opened an investigation against the president for passive corruption, obstruction of justice and illicit association.

On Tuesday, Fachin gave the federal police ten days to send a written interrogation to Temer, which the president must respond to within 24 hours.

The defense team also requested Fachin, if he insists the interrogation should go ahead, should veto any police question into the Batista recording, whose validity is under question by Temer.

"The very content of the evidence orchestrated by the entrepreneur (Batista) was clearly manipulated," sustained the defense team.

The recording of a conversation between Temer and Batista lasts around 40 minutes and has the two men discussing politics and economics, before addressing the bribing of former Speaker Eduardo Cunha to buy him silence. Cunha was jailed for 15 years for his involvement in the Petrobras corruption ring.