Impeachment trial a step away from 'real coup d'état,' says Brazil's Dilma Rousseff
'My conscience is clear,' suspended president tells senators preparing to decide her future
Suspended president Dilma Rousseff appeared before Brazil's Senate on Monday to defend herself against charges of breaking budget laws in an impeachment trial that is expected to remove her from office this week.
"I know I will be judged, but my conscience is clear. I did not commit a crime," Rousseff told the senators as the session got underway Monday morning.
"I can't help but taste the bitterness of injustice."
"I did not commit the crimes that I am arbitrarily and unjustly accused of," she said, in what may be her last public appearance as president. "We are one step away from a real coup d'état."
Senators who questioned Rousseff in Monday's session were scheduled to vote late Tuesday or early Wednesday on whether to convict her and remove her from office.
Unbowed, Rousseff told senators that history would judge them by their votes and recalled her trial under the military dictatorship in 1970, when officers hid their faces to avoid being recognized in photographs.
"This is the second trial I have suffered in which democracy has sat with me in the dock," she said, choking back tears as she recalled facing death when she was tortured day after day in detention. "Today I only fear the death of democracy."
If she is dismissed, interim President Michel Temer would officially take over as Brazil's leader to serve out the remainder of the presidential term through 2018.
Rousseff is accused of using money owed to state banks to bolster spending during an election year in 2014, a budgetary sleight of hand employed by many elected officials in Brazil. She says the money had no impact on overall deficit levels and was paid back in full the following year.
Chief Justice Ricardo Lewandowski opened the session saying he will remove anyone who applauds, boos or shouts any comments during the proceedings.
With many Brazilians assuming the result of the trial to be a foregone conclusion, there were scattered protests by Rousseff supporters on Monday but no sign of the massive demonstrations for and against impeachment that shook Brazil earlier this year.
A survey by O Estado de S. Paulo newspaper said 53 senators have already confirmed they will vote against Rousseff, just one vote short of the two-thirds of the 81-seat Senate needed to dismiss her. Only 19 said they will back her.
With files from Reuters