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Brazil: President Dilma Rousseff Takes Stand at Impeachment Trial

HeadlineAug 30, 2016

In Brazil, suspended President Dilma Rousseff took the stand Monday and denounced her impeachment trial as a coup.

President Dilma Rousseff: “Without an impeachable crime, any impeachment carried out by Brazilian lawmakers is a clear attack on the Constitution, because the Constitution clearly sets out the necessity for impeachment processes on the basis of a crime. An impeachment process which commits the violent act of removing an innocent president is a coup d’état.”

During her testimony, Rousseff also compared the impeachment proceedings to Brazil’s dictatorship-era military tribunals that sentenced her to prison for her activism against the regime. She was tortured while imprisoned. Despite her impassioned testimony, Brazil’s Senate is expected to vote to remove Rousseff as early as Wednesday.

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