Dilma Rousseff broke no laws, insist her supporters

The final witnesses in the defence of suspended Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff testified late Saturday in her Senate impeachment trial, days before a vote that could permanently remove her from power.

Ms Rousseff, 68, is accused of taking illegal state loans to help bridge budget shortfalls and mask the true state of the economy during her 2014 reelection campaign.

The one-time Marxist guerrilla, who was imprisoned and tortured under Brazil’s military dictatorship in the 1970s, says the charges against her are trumped up and amount to a right-wing coup.

Testifying on the third day of the impeachment trial were former economy minister Nelson Barbosa and Rio State University law professor Ricardo Lodi.

Both testified that Ms Rousseff — suspended from office in May — did not break the law or harm the economy, which is now in deep recession.

“There is no basis to say that the President is criminally responsible,” Mr Barbosa said.

He insisted that decrees Ms Rousseff issued at the time were fully constitutional.

“There is nothing remotely illegal,” Mr Barbosa said. “You cannot act retroactively with a new interpretation of the law.”

The same argument was delivered Friday by a first batch of witnesses testifying on Ms Rousseff’s behalf who said that such budget manoeuvres have long been common practice, and that Brazil’s economic decline was entirely unrelated.

Ms Rousseff’s accusers laid out their case on the trial’s opening day Thursday, arguing that she was criminally irresponsible and helped run once booming Brazil into the ground.

Brazil’s economy shrank 3.8 per cent in 2015 and is forecast to drop a further 3.3 per cent this year, a historic recession. Inflation stands at around nine per cent and unemployment at 11 per cent.