Brazil's Senate grills Rousseff at impeachment trial

Brazil's suspended President Dilma Rousseff on Monday fielded questions from senators in day four of her impeachment trial.

After a 45-minute address in her own defense, Senators began to cross-examine Rousseff on charges her government lied about the size of the fiscal deficit to ensure her re-election to a second term.

"I did not lie in the electoral process," Rousseff responded to a question from Senator Magno Malta, according to the Agencia Brasil news agency.

"Nobody knew that we would have a more than 40-dollar drop" in the price of a barrel of oil, she said, in explaining discrepancies in the fiscal accounts.

After taking questions from 19 senators, Ricardo Lewandowski, the president of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), predicted that the cross-examination could last until 11 p.m. local time. There are 81 senators in total and each can take five minutes to pose questions.

Starting Tuesday, the senators will vote on whether or not to impeach Rousseff.

The former presidential candidate of the conservative Brazilian Social Democratic Party (PSDB), Aecio Neves, who lost to Rousseff in 2014 presidential elections, described her testimony as "evasive".

Neves, now a PSDB senator, told reporters during the first break in questioning that Rousseff's testimony would not sway lawmakers convinced of her guilt.

"A political speech, evasive and inconsistent in terms of responding to the crimes she is charged with. My assessment is that none of this will change the outcome, but we are going to properly comply with all of the rituals outlined by the Federal Supreme Court, calmly and responsibly," said Neves.

Not all the Senators were hostile to Rousseff, Agencia Brasil reported.

Instead of using her allotted time to question Rousseff, Senator Katia Abreu listed the president's accomplishments, especially in agriculture.

Abreu also noted the impeachment process was launched by former Lower House Speaker Eduardo Cunha, a political ally-turned-adversary of Rousseff and her left-leaning Worker's Party (PT).

The "trial was born of the nasty revenge of Eduardo Cunha and of the greed for power," said Abreu. Cunha reportedly turned on the PT after the party decided not to protect him from being investigated for corruption by the congressional ethics committee. Enditem