This week, President Michel Temer became the first sitting Brazilian head of state to face criminal charges since the end of the military dictatorship in 1985. In an indictment filed at Brazil’s supreme court (STF) on 26 June, the prosecutor-general, Rodrigo Janot, accused Temer of passive corruption. But Brazil’s embattled President, who narrowly escaped impeachment from another court (the supreme electoral tribunal [TSE]) last month, is determined to remain in office. “I do not know how God appointed me here [to the presidency]. But if he gave me a difficult task, it was for me to complete it... I won’t let them accuse me of crimes I did not commit,” declared a defiant Temer. The case now passes to the federal congress, which will decide his fate.