Brazilian Senate begins impeachment trial against Dilma Rousseff

The Brazilian Senate began Thursday the impeachment trial of suspended president Dilma Rousseff.

Rousseff was accused of seeking to hide public budget deficits through fiscal irregularities, such as delaying loan payments to public banks and ordering additional loans without congressional approval.

Kicking off proceedings at 9:33 a.m., Ricardo Lewandowski, president of the Supreme Court, read out the order of proceedings to a sparsely filled Senate chamber, with only 28 of 81 senators present.

Then, the witnesses for the prosecution have begun to be heard. These include Julio Marcelo de Oliveira, a public official from the federal accountability office (TCU) who made the allegations against Rousseff, and Antonio Carlos Costa D'Avila, the chief auditor of the TCU.

According to daily O Globo, de Oliveira's testimony saw him accuse Rousseff of violating the Constitution through fiscal manipulation.

"Excess revenues, despite coming from a specific course, can only supplement a provision for future expenditure, if authorized in the budget. (In this case), there was no legislative approval, which means it was a violation of the Constitution," he was quoted as saying.

De Oliveira added that the TCU also never allowed such actions to be taken in 2014 or 2015.

The rest of Thursday and Friday will be dedicated to hearing witnesses. This process may continue into the weekend, if needed.

The defense has presented six witnesses, the maximum permitted. These include Rousseff's former planning minister Nelson Barbosa, her former budget secretary Esther Dweck, a leading economist Luiz Gonzaga Belluzzo, the former political investment secretary, Gilson Bettencourt, the former executive secretary of the ministry of education, Luiz Claudio Costa, and a law professor from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Geraldo Prado.

The declarations of each witness will be heard individually, followed by three minutes allotted for questions from each senator and three minutes for answers.

On Monday, Aug. 29, Rousseff will appear and provide her testimony while the prosecutors and defense lawyers will present their cases. On Tuesday, Aug. 30, the senators will express their opinions about the case.

The final vote into whether to impeach Rousseff or not could be held on Aug. 30, if time allows, or the next day.

Rousseff was temporarily suspended for up to 180 days on May 12 and her Vice President Michel Temer took over the presidency on an interim basis.

A two-thirds majority, 54 out of 81 senators,is needed to fully remove her from office. If this level of support is not obtained, Rousseff will immediately return to power and the case against her will be dropped.

Should Rousseff be impeached, Temer would complete her mandate until the end of 2018 and she would be ineligible to stand for public office for eight years. Endit