Defense: they want to suspend Rousseff because she disturbs them
Suspended President Dilma Rousseff's defense counsel José Eduardo Cardozo
Suspended President Dilma Rousseff's defense counsel José Eduardo Cardozo said that the member of the Workers' Party (PT) is being removed from office and "the people who elected her have not even a basic understanding about the crime she has committed." During the fifth day of the impeachment trial at the Senate, Cardozo insisted on the lack of evidence for any crime committed and stated that Rousseff is an honest person.
"It hurts me, not as a lawyer, but as a human being. It is not fair to say what they said here about Dilma Rousseff. If they want to convict her, just do it, but do not tarnish the reputation of a noble woman," he requested. According to him, if Rousseff detected the "smell" of something wrong, it would be enough for "going for the jugular of her ministers," which made peaople applied to her adjectives like authoritarian and tough. "Righteous women are tough," he said.
Cardozo pointed out that the charges against Rousseff are confusing and are actually only pretexts. According to him, parties favorable to impeachment are ousting the president because she is a "woman that disturbs" them and all work to destabilize her government began as soon as she won the 2014 presidential elections.
As attempts to destabilize her government, he mentioned allegations that votes were being bought in exchange for the benefit of the Bolsa Família [conditional cash transfer program], a petition to audit voting machines, and complaints to contest the government's accounts of the suspended president. "Given the incapacity for delegitimizing her re-election, they began to look for impeachable facts at all costs."
Rousseff's lawyer also insisted on the thesis that the responsible for initiating proceedings to oust the president has first and last name: Eduardo Cunha. "Against Dilma's positions, Cunha chaired the lower house and began the process to destabilize the presidency. 'Stop car wash operation, otherwise the government will be destabilized'. Dilma refused and faced Cunha, as she had faced torturers during her youth. And responded to the congressman, 'You face me!'” he reported.
Leaving the Senate for the lunch break, Cardozo cried when talking to journalists. He said the prosecution lawyer was very severe when supporting Rousseff's conviction and justifying it on the grounds of defending the suspended president's grandchildren.
"For a person who knows Rousseff, asking her conviction to defend her grandchildren is something that deeply struck me," he said
When concluding her statement, also with a broken voice, Janaína Paschoal apologized to the suspended president for the motion calling for her impeachment and for causing her suffering. "I ask her to one day understand that I did it also thinking of her grandchildren," said Paschoal.
Translated by Amarílis Anchieta
Fonte: Defense: they want to suspend Rousseff because she disturbs them
