Brazilian congressmen warn of constitutional crisis

Irate Brazilian congressmen are to call on Monday for Supreme Court judges to change their votes and withdraw their support for a former presidential aide involved in a political corruption case.

They warned that the high court's involvement in the case of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's former chief of staff Jose Dirceu could lead to a constitutional crisis.

Five judges voted in favor of Dirceu and five against him in his effort to seek their approval for a new trial in a congressional ethics committee where he faces charges of spearheading a vote-buying scheme for the governing Workers' Party. A judge who had been absent is expected to make the decisive vote on Wednesday.

While the committee's trial is a political, and not a judicial, a new trial would buy Dirceu time and the possibility of avoiding being ousted from Congress. He claims to have received an unfair trial because of what he said was improper order of testimony.

Congressmen from several political parties cried foul, questioning the court's authority to even hear the case.

"This is a clear intervention in congressional affairs, it violates the separation of powers," said Lower House vice-president Jose Thomaz Nono of the right-wing Liberal Front Party.

The six-month scandal over the Workers' Party's illegal financing scheme has already left deep scars in Brazil's highly fractious political landscape. The latest standoff could make for an even more tumultuous campaign ahead of next October's election, in which Lula is expected to seek a second term.

Members of the lower house ethics committee on Monday will present a memorandum rebutting the five judges in favor of a partial retrial.

"If the court backs Dirceu we'll have an institutional crisis," Jose Delgado, the ethics committee rapporteur told Reuters. "I recognize the authority of the Supreme Court but I believe it is wrong," he said, adding that Dirceu had a proper defense.

(Published Reuters, November 27, 2005)
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