Top Brazil Judge Strips Lula of Office

In a move likely to inflame tensions between the judiciary and Brazil's leftist govement, Supreme Court justice Gilmar Mendes said Rousseff's decision to name Lula her chief of staff appeared designed to shelter him from prosecutors' charges of money laundering.

Lula's appointment on Wednesday, which sparked protests in several cities, means only the Supreme Court can investigate him, placing him beyond the reach of a crusading judge heading Brazil's biggest ever graft probe into corruption at state oil company Petrobras, Reuters reported.

"It would be plausible to conclude that the appointment and subsequent swearing-in could constitute fraud of the Constitution," Mendes said in his ruling. His decision to suspend Lula from ministerial office can be appealed before a plenary session of the court.

The opposition branded Rousseff's appointment of her charismatic political mentor as a desperate bid to shore up support in her Workers Party against impeachment proceedings, which picked up speed in Congress on Friday, as well as a means of protecting him from prosecutors.