The former director of Petrobras, Jorge Zelada, has been arrested and jailed on charges of bribery and corruption. This latest arrest is a "strong blow" to Brazil, as the country is in the midst of a corruption scandal.

A majority of Brazilians believe that the corruption probe will continue, despite Brazil falling into economic instability. Zelada, who headed the state-owned oil company's international division, has been sentenced up to twelve years in prison. The former director was jailed due to charges of money-laundering and corruption, VOA reports.

Zelada's lawyer, Renato de Moraes, said that he will do all he can to seek his client's acquittal. 

BBC reports that Zelada was arrested in July 2015 in what is to be Brazi's biggest corruption scandal to date. The widespread corruption scandal has seen the arrests of Brazil's most powerful officials, including BTG Pactual bank chief Andre Esteves and Senator Delcídio do Amaral.

Investigators also said that some of Brazil's construction and engineering companies paid bribes to Petrobras' political executives in return for "doctored" contracts.

According to the report, Federal Judge Sergio Moro said that the former Petrobras director gave U.S. company Vantage Drilling a Petrobras contract in 2009 for the drill ship Titanium Explorer. Zelada was said to be given bribes hidden away in undeclared accounts in Monaco and Switzerland.

Along with Zelada, Petrobras manager Eduardo Costa Musa was also jailed. The men were said to have received $30m from Vantage Drilling Corporation.

Federal Judge Sergio Moro said that he had requested to call on Vantage Drilling CEO Paul Bragg as a witness. However, the request was not granted per the cooperation treaty between Brazil and the United States. The said treaty states that witnesses should only be called upon by the prosecution.

Moro has focused on engineering firms and executives accused of price fixing during the course of the corruption probe. These firms were also accused of overcharging Petrobras, and using those funds to bribe Brazil's politicians.

While Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff has been previously connected to the Petrobras scandal, she has been cleared of any involvement in the entire case. Though the president's popularity had a significant drop, Brazilian Congress found that there was no significant proof on Rousseff's involvement in the corruption scandal. 

The commission who reported that Rousseff was clear of any involvement said that the crimes committed in the entire scandal were personally motivated. They called the state-owned oil company a "victim of a cartel."