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Brazil's Supreme Court suspends president of lower house

Xinhua, May 6, 2016 Adjust font size:

Supreme Court (STF) Justice Teori Zavascki accepted a request to suspend Eduardo Cunha, president of the Chamber of Deputies, for allegedly interfering with a corruption investigation and personally pressuring lawmakers to vote his way.

Cunha is already being investigated by the STF on charges of taking bribes within the Petrobras corruption ring. However, prosecutor general Rodrigo Janot also asked the STF this week to remove Cunha for interfering with investigations against him.

Zavascki accepted this request, although the suspension is temporary until a full vote by 11 STF justices is carried out on the matter.

As president of the lower house, Cunha would become vice president, should President Dilma Rousseff be impeached by the Senate.

Given his position and influence, the justice wrote in his decision on the matter that Cunha "presents a risk for the credibility of the country's main political institutions ... as well as to ongoing investigations in the STF."

Zavascki added that "everything indicates" Cunha acted to "disqualify people, companies and politicians" from collaborating in investigations against him.

Cunha, a member of the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party, began the impeachment process against Rousseff. Enditem