President of Chile, Sebastián Piñera, has been impeached by the country’s lower house.
The impeachment has however set up a trial in Chile’s Senate on whether to remove the President over the allegations that he favoured the sale of a family property during his tenure.
The vote to accept the charges garnered the minimum 78 votes needed in the 155-member Chamber of Deputies and followed a marathon 20-hour session.
Meanwhile, 67 lawmakers which included members of the opposition voted against the “constitutional accusation,” while others abstained or were absent.
This development came after the Pandora Papers exposed offshore financial dealings of notable figures around the world, including Piñera, one of Chile’s richest personalities.
The documents that were leaked showed that one of Piñera’s sons used offshore companies in the British Virgin Islands to sell the Dominga mining project jointly owned by his family.
