In a last
ditch attempt to block her removal from office, Brazil’s ousted
President Dilma Rousseff appealed to the Supreme Court Thursday to
scrap the Senate’s decision impeach her, a move widely criticized
as a parliamentary coup, and instead convene a new Senate trial.
The appeal,
filed by Rousseff’s defense team led by her Attorney Eduardo
Cardoza, argues that the impeachment was unconstitutional on the
grounds that the budgetary crimes she is accused of is not an
impeachable offense according to Brazilian law and that the
prosecution violated her right to due process by changing their case
in the course of the trial.
The
injunction also calls on the Supreme Court to return de facto
President Michel Temer—installed in office for the remainder of
Rousseff’s term until the 2018 election—to an “interim”
status until the Senate re-votes on the question.
The Senate
voted 61-20 Wednesday to impeach Rousseff over accusations that she
broke budgetary rules in the leadup to her 2014 re-election using a
common accounting trick to make the government’s finances look
better. At the last minute, the vote on whether to strip Rousseff of
her political rights was separated from the impeachment ballot and
was voted down, meaning she is still able to hold public office.
The
injunction also calls on the court to change the 1950 budget law that
Rousseff’s accusers used to justify her impeachment on the basis
that it does not correspond with the country’s 1988 Constitution.
It is
unlikely that the Supreme Court will rule in Rousseff’s favor after
having rejected all previous arguments by her defense that the court
should cancel the impeachment process on legal grounds.
However, in
the improbable event that the Senate does accept the appeal, the
Senate would have to repeat the Senate trial, returning Rousseff to
the status of suspended president and Temer to the status of interim
president.
Protests
erupted in Brazil after the Senate vote consolidated the widely
condemned “coup” against Rousseff and swiftly inaugurated Temer
as the country’s president.
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