Brazil sets impeachment trial date for President Rousseff

Brasilia, Aug 13: Brazil's Supreme Court announced that the final impeachment trial of suspended President Dilma Rousseff will be held on August 25, the media reported on Saturday.

On August 10, the Senate voted 59-21 to move ahead with the trial, after a recommendation to do so by its impeachment committee, Xinhua news agency reported.

Next week, Ricardo Lewandowski, the president of the Supreme Court, will meet leaders of different political parties to determine the procedure of the trial and voting.

He will seek to broker a deal about the length of the sessions, the intervals and the time each senator will have to speak before casting their vote.

Expectations among analysts are that the trial will last under five days, although allies of interim president Michel Temer are seeking to reduce this period further.

A vote by two-thirds of the 81 senators (54 votes) are needed for Rousseff to be impeached and permanently removed from office.

Rousseff "went against the Constitution" by deliberately delaying payments to public banks and authorising additional credits without the approval of Congress, allegedly in order to hide a growing deficit in public finances, according to an impeachment committee's report.

Rousseff was temporarily suspended for up to 180 days on May 12 and vice-president, Michel Temer, took over the presidency on an interim basis.

If Rousseff is convicted and removed from office, Temer would complete her mandate until the end of 2018.

IANS