Lower house speaker to appeal injunction against guidelines set for impeachment
House speaker, Eduardo Cunha
The president of the Chamber of Deputies, Eduardo Cunha, said he is going to appeal the Supreme Court (STF) injunction against the guidelines he set for the impeachment proceedings that could lead to the ousting of President Dilma Rousseff.
According to information in the newsletter of the Chamber of Deputies, Cunha wants the injunction petition to be heard by the full Supreme Court.
The battle now involving the STF began after Cunha replied to the point of order raised by opposition leaders inquiring what would be the proceedings to open an impeachment case against the president of the country.
In his reply, Cunha said that, in case an impeachment petition filed by a deputy or citizen was turned down, any deputy could appeal the decision within five sessions of its publication by the presiding officer of the house. In that case, the matter would have to be decided on the floor.
According to the STF justices who have heard appeals filed by government allies, the guidelines established by Eduardo Cunha are in violation of the law that governs accountability proceedings against the president or ministers.
Three injunction petitions have been heard on the same subject and resulted in the same ruling, two of them issued by Justice Rosa Weber, and one by Justice Teori Zavascki.
“Deputy Eduardo Cunha has simply agreed with the opposition to come up with a guideline that conflicts with the Constitution. And this is not only the opinion of the deputies who took up the issue with the Supreme Court, but also of two Supreme Court justices who had a similar opinion,” said Wadih Damous of the ruling Workers' Party (PT), one of the pro-government deputies who challenged the guidelines established by Cunha.
The opposition regretted the decision of the Supreme Court. Deputy Carlos Sampaio, leader of PSDB at the Chamber of Deputies, said a new impeachment request is to be filed Friday (Oct. 16) arguing that the government has continued to adopt inappropriate accounting practices by delaying cash transfers to state banks well into Rousseff's ongoing second term as president this year, according to a report by Prosecutor Júlio Marcelo de Oliveira of the Public Prosecutor's Office.
Translated by Mayra Borges
Fonte: Lower house speaker to appeal injunction against guidelines set for impeachment case
