Brazil Supreme Court suspends lower house speaker from office

The Supreme Court, formed by 11 justices, unanimously upheld the preliminary decision announced by Justice Teori Zavascki, who ordered Deputy Eduardo Cunha to step aside from office as a lower house member, and consequently, from his role as the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies. The request had been made by Prosecutor-General Rodrigo Janot in December last year.

All justices agreed that Cunha is unable to occupy the position of house speaker. According to Justice Teori Zavascki, the lawmaker acts with misuse of purpose to illegitimately promote his interests. He mentioned cases involving Petrobras Congressional Committee of Inquiry (CPI) and the case against Cunha at the Ethics Council of the Chamber of Deputies, in which the deputy is accused of using applications filed by political allies to benefit himself.

Eduardo Cunha probed by Operation Car Wash is identified as suspect in committing crimes of bribe-taking and money laundering. A case against him is under deliberation at the Ethics Council of the Chamber of Deputies for lying about having Swiss bank accounts, undeclared in Brazil. As speaker of the lower house, he initiated impeachment proceedings against President Dilma Rousseff.

Translated by Amarílis Anchieta