RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Teori Zavascki has died in a small-plane crash just weeks before he was to rule in a major corruption case that could implicate high-ranking politicians in several Latin American countries.

While the cause of the Thursday’s crash off a popular Brazilian coastal town had not been determined, Zavascki held such an important role in the sprawling “Car Wash” investigation into a multibillion-dollar bribe scheme at the state oil company that many Brazilians immediately voiced fears of possible foul play and demanded a full investigation.

“Justice Teori Zavascki had been strongly driving the #Carwash investigation in the Supreme Court. It’s hard to believe this was a mere accident,” tweeted Alan Mansur, director of the National Association of Prosecutors.

Federal police and the public prosecutor are investigating the crash.

Rescuers said Friday that they have recovered all five bodies from the crash. They include Zavascki, businessman Carlos Alberto Filgueiras and pilot Osmar Rodrigues. The other two dead were not identified.

The plane crashed outside Paraty, a coastal town about 155 miles (250 kilometers) west of Rio de Janeiro. Witnesses speaking to Globo television said it was raining hard at the time, which is typical during the Southern Hemisphere summer.

Within an hour of the news of Zavascki’s death, President Michel Temer, who has been implicated by some suspects in the investigation but has not been charged, addressed the nation.

Zavascki “was a good man, and a (symbol of) pride for all Brazilians,” said Temer, who called for three days of national mourning.

While the largest corruption probe in Brazil’s history has been led by a team of prosecutors and Judge Sergio Moro in the southern city of Curitiba, Zavascki handled cases involving politicians. Under Brazilian law, only the Supreme Court can decide to charge or jail federal politicians.

Zavascki had been reviewing dozens of plea bargains of former and current executives of the big Odebrecht construction company, which was one of the main players in the kickback scheme at the oil company, Petrobras. Investigators allege more than $2 billion in bribes were paid over a decade and dozens of politicians and businessmen have been jailed.

Zavascki was expected to decide which of the Odebrecht plea bargains to validate by February. Validation would make them public, potentially implicating dozens of politicians in Brazil and several other countries where Odebrecht did business.