Brazil’s Top Court Reviewing Gov't Request to Suspend Rousseff Impeachment

Brazil’s government has appealed to the Supreme Federal Court (STF) asking to halt impeachment proceedings against President Dilma Rousseff on the grounds that there were violations in the process.

MEXICO CITY (Sputnik) – The judges held an emergency session discussing the request on Thursday. A spokeswoman for the Supreme Court said as cited by The Wall Street Journal on Thursday that the motion was not a last resort measure to avoid Rousseff’s ouster.

On Monday, a committee of the lower house (Chamber of Deputies) of Brazil’s National Congress approved a report recommending the impeachment of Rousseff. If two-thirds of the lower house vote for the move, the motion will go to the Senate (upper house).

According to Solicitor General José Eduardo Cardozo, who filed the Thursday government petition for the suspension of the impeachment process, the committee considered unrelated evidence when making its decision to go ahead of the impeachment proceedings.

Rousseff has been facing a wave of public discontent for over a year amid Brazil’s struggling economy and a major corruption scandal in the state-owned Petrobras petroleum company.

Earlier this week, the Progressive Party (PP) and the Social Democratic Party (PSD) left Rousseff’s coalition. The Brazilian Democratic Movement Party left the governing coalition in late March.

Rousseff vowed on Wednesday to fight against attempts to impeach her to the bitter end.