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Main witness in Rousseff's impeachment trail ruled out

Xinhua, August 26, 2016 Adjust font size:

The impeachment trial against Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff began Thursday with the prosecution's main witness disqualified.

Julio Marcelo de Oliveira, a prosecutor at the Federal Court of Accounts (TCU), was supposed to testify earlier in the day.

However, the Supreme Court chief justice Ricardo Lewandowski disqualified Oliveira as a witness after Rousseff's defense team argued the federal prosecutor attended anti-Rousseff protests.

Oliveira, who accused Rousseff of breaking budget laws in his testimony, will instead testify as an informant.

All witnesses in the impeachment trial are being kept isolated in a hotel in Brasilia without access to any sort of news. The testimony process is expected to last until Monday, when both the prosecution and the defense will present their final statements.

Rousseff is expected to present her own defense on Monday. On Tuesday, the Senate will have the final vote.

If found guilty, Rousseff will be removed from office definitively.

Rousseff is charged with spending without congressional approval and manipulating government accounts in the run-up to her 2014 re-election. Endi