Brazil's Supreme Court turns down motions against impeachment case

At the outcome of a seven-hour sitting on Thursday (Apr. 14), the Supreme Court (STF) turned down five motions challenging the impeachment case against President Dilma Rousseff, which will reach a final vote at the Chamber of Deputies on Sunday (Apr. 17) to decide if the impeachment proceedings move ahead for trial by Senate.

A majority of Supreme Court justices decided to sustain the ongoing proceedings at the Chamber of Deputies and reject an injunction sought by the Attorney-General's Office (AGU) to annul the proceedings.

A motion filed by a pro-government party [PC do B] seeking the revocation of the rules adopted by the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, Eduardo Cunha, establishing the order in which the deputies' names will be called for the vote on whether the impeachment case should proceed to the Senate. Six of the eleven justices concluded that there was nothing illegal with Cunha's interpretation of the lower house rules.

The Supreme Court further ruled that, should the case move ahead to the Senate, only the facts originally stated in the impeachment petition filed with the Chamber of Deputies should be on trial, which includes the decrees authorizing budget amendments and loans from the Treasury to state banks.

At the end of session, Chief Justice Ricardo Lewandowski said the Court may still “rule on whether the facts in the charges [i.e. what Rousseff is accused of perpetrating] constitute impeachable offenses”.

Translated by Mayra Borges