Brazil’s minister for communications resigns after charges unveiled against him

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BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazilian Minister for Communications, who oversees services including telecommunication and postal, said in a statement on Tuesday he decided to resign from his role to focus on his legal defense after charges against him had became public.

“I am leaving because I believe that, at this moment, the most important thing is to protect the country’s project that we helped to build and in which I continue to believe,” Minister Juscelino Filho said in the statement.

Reuters had reported Filho’s decision to resign earlier in the day, citing a source.

The office of Brazil’s prosecutor general presented charges against Filho as part of a probe of misappropriation of public funds while he was a lawmaker, another source told Reuters earlier on Tuesday, following local media reports.

The prosecutor’s office did not immediately respond to request for comments.

In his statement, Filho said the accusations against him are “unfounded”, adding he needs to focus on his legal defense now. His lawyers said they were not officially notified about the charges so far.

Supreme Court has to decide now whether Filho will stand trial for the charges.

(Reporting by Lisandra Paraguassu and Ricardo Brito in Brasilia; Writing by Andre Romani; Editing by Leslie Adler and Aida Pelaez-Fernandez)