Brazil's Supreme Court rejects motion to annul Rousseff impeachment

Brazil's Supreme Court Wednesday dismissed the government's motion to annul impeachment proceedings against President Dilma Rousseff.

The decision by Judge Teori Zavascki removed the last obstacle to a Senate vote later in the day which will decide whether to begin impeachment proceedings against Rousseff on charges of violating budget laws.

A simple majority for the motion will remove the president from the position and force her to face a final trial, which should be scheduled within 180 days.

On Tuesday, in a last-ditch effort to stop the case from moving forward, Attorney General Eduardo Cardozo, the government's top lawyer, asked the Supreme Court to annul impeachment proceedings, saying they are politically motivated.

The Attorney General's Office, which acts as the government's counsel, argued that Eduardo Cunha, recently suspended from lower house speaker, abused his power to sway a vote in the chamber in favor of an impeachment trial. The case was then sent to the Senate for approval.

Cunha was then suspended on suspicion that he helped embezzle public funds from state oil firm Petrobras and accepted bribes.

Many Brazilians believed that the impeachment is politically driven than by solid evidence of wrongdoing on the part of the president.

The pro-impeachment camp claims Rousseff's administration misused public funds to improve her chances of winning the re-election.

Cunha has started to pursue impeachment after Rousseff's ruling Workers' Party (PT) voted in favor of opening an investigation against him over the involvement of the Petrobras case.

Brazil's Attorney General Jose Eduardo Cardozo accused Cunha of being motivated by a desire for "political vengeance."

In submitting the motion to block Rousseff's impeachment, Cardozo cited the arguments by Judge Zavascki last week to suspend Cunha from his post.

Zavascki had said Cunha could not continue to serve since he could use his position to hamper the investigations into how he amassed the hefty amount of undeclared income that he had been kept in secret Swiss bank accounts.

(APD)