Congress expels ex-speaker Eduardo

Two weeks after the removal of Dilma Rousseff as Brazil’s president, the lower house of Congress has expelled the politician who engineered her impeachment for lying about secret bank accounts in Switzerland. Eduardo Cunha, who has been charged with corruption by the Supreme Court, was on Monday banned from politics for eight years and faces […]

Two weeks after the removal of Dilma Rousseff as Brazil’s president, the lower house of Congress has expelled the politician who engineered her impeachment for lying about secret bank accounts in Switzerland.
Eduardo Cunha, who has been charged with corruption by the Supreme Court, was on Monday banned from politics for eight years and faces arrest now that he has lost his congressional prerogatives.
The chamber voted overwhelmingly 450-10 to strip the once powerful former speaker of his seat.
Rubens Bueno, of the Popular Socialist Party, said: “This shows that Brazil will no longer tolerate a politician who turned Congress into a business counter for bribes and favours.”
He said Cunha took kickbacks from companies and instructed them to donate to the campaigns of his allies.
Cunha’s downfall has many politicians worried because he has threatened to bring down others by revealing cases of corruption that could endanger members of the government of Michel Temer, Brazil’s new president, and derail his fiscal overhaul agenda.