Brazilian Supreme Court suspends lower house president

Brazil's Supreme Court decided on Thursday to suspend President of the Chamber of Deputies Eduardo Cunha for obstructing corruption investigations against him.

In a unanimous vote, the 11 Supreme Court judges made the decision on an injunction filed by prosecutor general Rodrigo Janot to suspend Cunha's office.

The vote was a confirmation of a preliminary decision by Justice Teori Zavaski, who ruled early in the day that Cunha should be suspended. Given Cunha's capacity as the House speaker, the issue had to be voted on by all Supreme Court judges as well.

The 11 judges agreed that Cunha had been using his power to obstruct investigations against him.

A massive investigation into a major corruption scheme at state-controlled oil and gas giant Petrobras is underway.

Alleged bribery and fraudulent contracts have led to the arrests of a number of politicians, Petrobras directors and high executives from Brazil's major construction companies.

Cunha is being investigated by the Chamber's ethics committee for taking millions of dollars for favoring specific companies in Petrobras contracts.

Cunha was in a privileged position to halt and obstruct the investigations against him. The ethics investigation has already lasted six months, a time length unseen before.

In a statement issued after the Supreme Court's decision was announced, Cunha complained that the judiciary was trying to interfere with Congress and that he would appeal.

In his injunction, Janot said that removing Cunha from his position was essential for investigations to continue without interference and warned about the possibility that the lawmaker would commit more wrongdoings.

However, for Cunha to be removed, the Chamber itself must vote in favor. Until that time, he will maintain his salary and benefits. Such a vote is seen as very unlikely since his successor, Waldir Maranhao, is a close ally of his.

Cunha is regarded as one of the major agents of President Dilma Rousseff's impeachment process. As president of the Chamber, he refused to accept any impeachment requests against her for most of 2015.

However, when Rousseff's Workers' Party suggested it would back his removal after documents revealed Cunha had millions of dollars stashed away in Swiss bank accounts, he started the impeachment process.

Rousseff calls the impeachment against her "a soft coup" and regards Cunha and her Vice President Michel Temer as its masterminds.