Brazil's Senate Commission approves Alexandre de Moraes for Supreme Court spot

The Constitution and Justice Commission (CCJ) of the Brazilian Senate approved on Tuesday the nomination of Alexandre de Moraes for a vacant spot on the Supreme Court.

After a session took the better part of a day, the CCJ approved the nominee by 19 votes against seven. After the questioning and approval of the Senate Commission, Moraes' nomination is scheduled to head to the entire senate for further scrutiny Wednesday morning.

Alexandre de Moraes is considered a controversial name for the Supreme Court. He currently serves as Justice Minister and has faced a severe prison crisis in January. His performance amid several riots and problems in the prison system was severely criticized by local media, and considered mistaken or even disastrous by some.

Moraes has been tapped by Brazilian President Michel Temer as his nominee to replace the spot of Justice Teori Zavascki, who died in a plane crash last month.

As the accident investigation is ongoing, Zavascki's death is deemed suspicious because the Supreme Court judge was rapporteur in overseeing Operation Carwash, a massive corruption investigation on the state-run oil giant Petrobras.

Zavascki died only days before validating the testimonies of 77 executives from construction company Odebrecht, which are likely to implicate a number of the most powerful figures in Brazil and its Latin American neighbors. Endi