Brazilian Deputies in the List to Be Kicked Out Can Resign and Avoid Penalties

The president of the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies, Severino Cavalcanti (PP-Pernambuco), has now sent the Ethics Council a final list of the last four deputies who face possible expulsion from the Congress.

They are: Romeu Queiroz (PTB-Minas Gerais), José Dirceu (PT-São Paulo), Sandro Mabel (PL-Goiás) and Francisco Gonçalves (PTB-Minas Gerais). They join four other deputies whose names Cavalcanti had already sent to the council: Sandro Matos (PTB-Rio de Janeiro), Neuton Lima (PTB-São Paulo), Joaquim Francisco (PTB-Pernambuco) and Alex Canziani (PTB-Paraná).


Pursuant to Brazilian legislative practice, the deputies can resign up to the moment they are formally charged. By resigning they do not lose their “political rights,” they just have to give up their seats in the Congress and can run for election again next year.


However, if the expulsion process goes through and they are expelled from Congress, besides losing their congressional seats, they are prohibited from running for office for eight years.


There is some question about the charges against Gonçalves as they are based exclusively on his own confession of wrongdoing. He is accused of not taking action after he saw a suitcase full of money in the Congress. All the others are accused of involvement in the payoff scheme denounced by deputy Roberto Jefferson (PTB-Rio de Janeiro).


ABr

Tags:

You May Also Like

Brazilian E-Trade Generates US$ 1.9 Billion in First Half

Electronic trade or online commercial transactions generated a turnover of US$ 1.9 billion in ...

Brazilian Justice Can’t Tell News Reporting from Propaganda

A Brazilian court fined the newspaper Agosto, on June 5, US$ 13,400 for publishing ...

Bus set on fire by organized crime in São Paulo, Brazil

Enough Already of Pretending Brazil Doesn’t Need a Revolution

Enough already of all the cruelty. Of bus passengers burned alive, of young people ...

Brazil President Uses G20 Summit in Mexico to Talk to Obama and Merkel on Rio +20 Issues

Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff is in Los Cabos, Mexico, for the seventh G-20 summit ...

Jobs in Brazil Up for 3rd Month in a Row

Industrial employment in Brazil grew 0.2% in July, the third gain in as many ...

WSF Says in Brazil that Water Is Human Right

Water is a human right, not a product to be commercialized. This is the ...

Brazil and Argentina Build AIDS Drug Factory in 2006

Latin America and Caribbean nations have agreed, in Brazil, to act together to increase ...

Brazil’s Land Reform Is Spurring Amazon Deforestation, Greenpeace Claims

Brazil's government has promised to investigate allegations that its policy of settling landless communities ...

Moo-Hyun Calls Brazil’s Lula, ‘an Example to Be Followed’

Speaking, Tuesday (16), in the Ministry of Foreign Relations, in BrasÀ­lia, at a dinner ...

Bird Flu Sends Chicken Prices Below Production Costs in Brazil

There are no signs of bird flu in Brazil, but its presence is being ...