BRASILIA, (Reuters) – Brazil’s congressional ethics committee voted to strip suspended Speaker Eduardo Cunha of his seat yesterday for allegedly lying about undeclared Swiss bank accounts, the latest in a series of political earthquakes to rock Latin America’s largest country. Cunha insisted on his innocence and vowed to appeal the decision to another congressional committee. To remove him from office, a majority of the lower house of Congress still needs to affirm the decision.
If he loses his seat, Cunha, the architect of suspended President Dilma Rousseff’s impeachment, will also lose the partial immunity enjoyed by elected politicians. He could then be arrested and prosecuted by lower courts in several corruption cases brought against him.
Cunha is the only sitting Brazilian lawmaker to face trial in the massive bribery investigation focused on state oil company Petrobras, in which he was indicted for receiving a $5 million bribe related to contracts for two drillships. The ethics committee voted to eject him from Congress for lying about holding bank accounts in Switzerland with his wife, who has also been indicted by prosecutors for receiving bribe money from a Petrobras purchase of oil fields in Benin.
The fall of Cunha, one of Brazil’s most divisive public figures, adds to sweeping political upheaval in Brazil as it struggles with its biggest graft scandal ever, the impeachment of Rousseff and the worst economic recession in decades.