News / Brazil

Brazil's Rousseff impeachment trial underway in Senate

Thursday, 25 August 2016 3:13 PM [ Last Update: Thursday, 25 August 2016 4:00 PM ]

A general view of the Senate's plenary, during the impeachment trial of suspended Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff at the National Congress in Brasilia on August 25, 2016. (AFP photo)

Brazil’s Senate has opened the impeachment trial of suspended President Dilma Rousseff.

The country’s Senate, or Upper House, on Thursday started the impeachment to decide on whether to permanently remove Brazil's first female president from office on charges of breaking budget laws.

Roussef denies any wrongdoing and says she will come to Senate on Monday to defend herself in front of 81 senators against a "coup" against her leftist government.

"I committed no crime.... I must go to the Senate to defend Brazil's democracy, the political views that I advocate and the legitimate rights of the Brazilian people," she said.

Her allies claim many of the lawmakers now accusing Rousseff of budget tampering are themselves under legal investigation for far more serious cases of fraud and corruption.

Senators’ final judgment on the matter is expected to come out in a ruling late Tuesday or the early hours of Wednesday next week.

Suspended Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff speaks during a Workers' Party rally in Brasilia on August 24, 2016. (AFP photo)

Rousseff’s opponents say they are confident they have more than the 54 votes needed to convict her and end 13 years of left-wing rule of her Workers' Party over the country.

The Senate suspended Rousseff in May and her political rival, Vice President Michel Temer, has been running the country since.

If Rousseff is ousted by the Senate, Temer becomes Brazil's new leader for the rest of her term through 2018 after being sworn in by the Senate.

This comes as Latin America's largest economy out of its worst recession in decades.

Roussef has already started to move her personal belongings out of the presidential palace in Brasilia to her home in Porto Alegre.

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