House speaker removal better late than never

The removal of Brazilian lower house of Congress speaker Eduardo Cunha from his position and the suspension of his mandate occurred "better late than never," Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff said on Thursday.

During a ceremony to mark the beginning of the commercial operation of the Belo Monte hydroelectric power plant, the president commented on the decision to suspend Cunha's term and remove him from the presidency of the Chamber of Deputies.

"I heard the Supreme Court had suspended Mister Eduardo Cunha, alleging that he was using his position for coercion and blackmail. Better late than ever. The only thing I regret is that he succeeded in presiding over the regrettable impeachment process in the House," she said.

As the House speaker, despite being implicated in several wrongdoings himself, Cunha accepted the impeachment request against Rousseff and presided over the House session in which the impeachment was approved on April 17.

According to the government, the fact that a person accused of many wrongdoings presided over an impeachment process is another reflection of the legal frailty.

Cunha was suspended preliminarily from his position early on Thursday by head of Supreme Court Teori Zavascki, who accepted an injunction filed by chief prosecutor Rodrigo Janot.

According to Janot, Cunha was using his position to obstruct investigations of the Lava Jato Operation, which was uncovered as a major corruption scheme at Petrobras.

Later in the day, the decision was voted by all 11 Supreme Court judges. They unanimously decided to suspend Cunha, agreeing that his permanence in the House Speaker's position was hindering the investigations.

Cunha was also being investigated by the House Ethics Committee, as he was accused of participating in the Petrobras corruption scheme by taking millions of dollars in favoring specific companies in Petrobras contracts.

Source: XINHUA