MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Rousseff makes impassionate defense against impeachment attempts in Congress

“What hurts most at this moment is the injustice,” said Rousseff's statement, read out by her lawyer Eduardo Cardozo.

Brazil's suspended president Dilma Rousseff rejected attempts to impeach her as an “injustice” in a defense filing Wednesday, as a decision on her political fate moved a step closer. The affair has rocked Brazil as it struggles with a recession and corruption scandals ahead of next month's Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

 In a written defense statement to a Senate impeachment committee, the 68-year-old populist leader denied she had breached the constitution by fiddling government accounts. She recalled her past as a guerrilla under Brazil's dictatorship in the 1970s, when she was tortured, and more recently, her battle to overcome cancer.

“What hurts most at this moment is the injustice,” said her statement, read out by her lawyer Eduardo Cardozo. “What hurts most is seeing that I am being made a victim of a judicial and political farce,” it added.

“I was not responsible for committing any crime,” the statement said. “I never diverted a single cent of public money for my personal gain or for that of third parties.”

The full Senate is due to hear the commission's non-binding verdict on August 4. Brazil hosts the Olympic Games from August 5 to 21. The Senate will then vote in a plenary session between August 25 and 27 on whether to remove Rousseff from office for good by impeaching her.

At that point Rousseff will have the opportunity to appear in person to defend herself. That would be her last chance to try to swing a few crucial Senate votes in her favor, though analysts are judging it unlikely she will escape impeachment.

Rousseff has denounced the impeachment drive as a coup. She declined to appear in person to defend herself on Wednesday before the 21-member commission, which is dominated by her political rivals.

“The cards are marked in this game and we advised the president not to come and endorse this coup, and that she only attend the plenary,” said Lindbergh Farias, a senator from Rousseff's Workers' Party.