Rio de Janeiro [Brazil], Aug. 26 : The impeachment trial of suspended Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, the country's first female leader, accused of illegally doctoring accounts, has started.
Rousseff is accused of illegally doctoring accounts ahead of her re-election in 2014 to hide a budget shortfall and to keep funding popular social programs, reports the CNN.
She however, denies the allegations and calls the entire process a technical coup d'etat driven by politicians implicated in a massive corruption investigation.
Supreme Court Justice Ricardo Lewandowski is presiding over the trial that started yesterday, with testimony from witnesses planned for the first two days while Rousseff will present her defense on Monday.
Voting is slated to be held on Tuesday. She was suspended in May, and vice president, Michel Temer, stepped in as the interim president and would finish the term if Rousseff is impeached.
Her impeachment would bring an end to 13 years of Workers' Party rule. At the same time, several politicians and business leaders were arrested, accused of a bribery scheme centered on the state-run oil company Petrobras, which was chaired by Rousseff for seven years, but she hasn't been implicated in the investigation.
Massive protests erupted across the country as Brazilians lashed out against political corruption and demanded Rousseff's ouster.
She insists that many of the lawmakers pushing for her impeachment want revenge because they were implicated in the investigation.
Source: ANI
