The Chamber of Deputies voted 450 to 10 to remove Eduardo Cunha.
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When announcing his resignation earlier in the summer, Cunha, who has been widely compared to the character Frank Underwood in the TV series “House of Cards”, had said: “I will continue to defend my innocence and that I told the truth”.
The scandal has tainted assorted top officials in Brazil, although it has most directly and seriously involved Rousseff’s Workers Party and the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party, to which Temer belongs. He was charged with corruption and denied the existence of Swiss bank accounts, he now faces arrest. He says they will happen in 2017 and 2018. It has also said it doesn’t plan to cap the rate of return, as was the case on some projects offered by his impeached predecessor, Dilma Rousseff.
Along with his seat he has lost the partial immunity from prosecution that comes with being an elected representative.
Mr Cunha – seen as the architect of former president Dilma Rousseff’s impeachment – could now face arrest.
Alencar, has been one of Cunha’s biggest critics and noted that the impeachment of the legislator was a “small but important step towards the end of corruption”.
Cunha has been a key ally of new President Michel Temer, who was Rousseff’s vice president, but after the vote he criticized Temer, saying his administration did not stand by him.
Cunha has also been charged by the Supreme Court for allegedly taking a $5 million (4.45 million-euro) bribe on a drill ship contract for the state-run oil company Petrobras.
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Temer, who was vice president before Rousseff was removed from office last month on charges of illegal budget maneuvers, is already on shaky ground after a bruising impeachment fight that further soured the national mood about politicians. He was nominally removed upon the recommendation of the house ethics committee for having lied to Congress about having secret bank accounts in Switzerland. The case has ensnared some of Brazil’s most powerful lawmakers and business executives. News stories displayed here appear in our category for General and are licensed via a specific agreement between LongIsland.com and The Associated Press, the world’s oldest and largest news organization. This includes the preparation of derivative works of, or the incorporation of such content into other works.
