A majority of Brazil's Supreme Court voted to accept corruption charges against lower house speaker Eduardo Cunha on Wednesday, putting him on trial for allegedly accepting bribes on contracts for two drill ships leased by state oil company Petrobras, according to Reuters. The ruling, which must be officially confirmed at the end of the court's session, is a setback to Cunha as he struggles to fend off a request from Brazil's top prosecutor for his removal as speaker for obstructing investigation into the Petrobras graft scandal. A bitter political rival of President Dilma Rousseff, Cunha could also lose his seat if an ethics committee inquiry underway finds he lied about undeclared Swiss bank accounts. Cunha faces charges of receiving a $5 million bribe in the widening price-fixing and political kickback scheme that has landed executives of top engineering companies in jail and ensnared dozens of politicians from Rousseff's coalition.
