Brazil: Senate removes Rousseff from presidential office

Brazil’s Senate has voted to remove President Dilma Rousseff from office following an impeachment trial which has paralysed the country for nine months.

Senators voted 61-20 to convict Rousseff for illegally using money from state banks to boost public spending. In a separate vote, the Senate decided not to bar her from public office for eight years.

Rousseff denied any wrong-doing and said the trumped up charges were an attempt to remove her from office in what amounts to a coup.

Former vice president Michel Temer who has run Brazil since Rousseff’s suspension in May will be sworn in to serve out the remainder of her term until 2018. He faces a tough task of getting the crisis-struck economy back on track, and faces bitter opposition from Rousseff’s Workers Party.