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Sunday, January 11, 2015

Brazil's attorney general files criminal complaint over rape taunt in Congress

Brazil congress


Brazil’s attorney general has filed criminal charges against a notoriously misogynistic congressman who taunted a fellow lawmaker with the words: “I wouldn’t rape you. You’re not worth it.”
It was the second time Jair Bolsonaro, a representative from Rio de Janeiro, had used the slur in Congress, which is supposed to be the country’s highest forum for debate – but frequently descends into a source of national shame.
Bolsonaro – a rightwing apologist for the 1964-85 military dictatorship – directed his comments at representative Maria do Rosário, a former human rights minister, after she praised a report by the country’s Truth Commission on the murder, rape and torture carried out by the government of that era.
As she left the podium last Tuesday, he yelled, “Stay here, Maria do Rosário. Stay! A while ago, you called me a rapist in the Green Room and I said: ‘I won’t rape you because you’re not worth it.’ Stay here. Listen!”
He was referring to an incident in the parliamentary Green Room in 2003, when he also shoved Rosário, described her as a slut and then jeered her with the words: “Go cry!”
On that occasion, there was no punishment for Bolsonaro, but this time his insults have stirred up an international storm of public revulsion.
Speech during debates is protected by parliamentary immunity, but the attorney general’s office said Bolsonaro could be held to account for similar comments he later made in a magazine interview.
The attorney general’s office said it has submitted a charge of incitement to rape to the Supreme Court. If convicted, Bolsonaro could be sentenced to up to six months in prison plus a fine.
But a prosecution is far from certain. Brazil’s slow legal system has struggled to rein in the excesses of its lawmakers. By one account almost a third of the roughly 600 national legislators are facing trial for crimes ranging from fraud to murder.
Atila Roque, who heads the Brazil branch of Amnesty International, said Bolsonaro had crossed as line.
“This particular congressman has been for a long time already a provocateur, particularly on the areas of sexual rights, of women, of the LGBT population, of people who stand for other values. He has consistently been prompting violence and misogyny and sexism”, Roque told Associated Press. “It is time for the Congress to say ‘enough’: he has gone beyond the freedom of expression of anyone in this country”.

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