Lula calls impeachment trial of Dilma Rousseff "national shame"

Brazil's former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said that the country's Senate inaugurated a "national day of shame" with the impeachment trial of suspended president Dilma Rousseff.

"Today is a national day of shame, a day on which senators started to rip apart the country's constitution and a day on which they begin to debate punishing an innocent woman, whose only crime was being honest," he said.

According to Lula, the senators are not trying to depose Rousseff, but instead cancelling the votes of the 54 million citizens who re-elected her in 2014.

Lula also criticized the administration of interim President Michel Temer, which he sees as trampling the Constitution to grab power.

"They found a way to get to power without having to run in an election, via a coup in the Congress. I have nothing personal against Temer. I just wish he knew that it would be dignified if he, as an expert in constitutional law, did not accept to come to power through a coup. He should say he is going to run in 2018, to find out whether he would be elected by the vote of the Brazilian people," he said.