Marielle Franco’s widow is threatened with rape

cyber crime

Monica Benicio received a lesbophobic email

Rio de Janeiro councilor Monica Benicio (Psol), widow of councilwoman Marielle Franco, filed a criminal complaint this Tuesday afternoon (22nd), in Rio de Janeiro, for the threat of corrective rape, received over the internet. The case was presented at the Police Station for Racial Crimes and Intolerance Crimes (Decradi).

According to the councilwoman, on the last 14th, she received a message sent by email which it uses as part of parliamentary work. The author identifies himself as Astolfo Bozzonio Rodrigues. In the criminal complaint, the councilwoman explains that she does not know if this is a real identity, and points out that there is an account linked to that name on the social network X (formerly Twitter), with homophobic publications.

The message, which was attached to the criminal complaint, has lesbophobic content. “He says that being a lesbian woman is an aberration”, quotes the councilwoman, who was threatened with corrective rape.

Threat

“Corrective rape is unfortunately a reality for us lesbian women in a society that thinks a woman’s body should be the exclusive possession of a man. When this is outside the norm, it is seen as an aberration, corrective rape would be the practice of rape on a lesbian woman to persuade her to stop being a lesbian, as if this were something possible to be done, committing yet another violence” ,

regrets.

“O email it even described how the crime would be, something very violent not only for a lesbian woman, but for women as a whole”is indignant Monica.

“I think it is important that we always demand that being a lesbian is not a disease, and corrective rape is a crime”,

emphasizes.

Visibility

The councilor said that she has received threats since 2018, when she began to demand justice for Marielle’s death, but now it was the first time that she received one of this nature. The author went so far as to say that he knew where the councilwoman lived, without, however, saying the address. She believes that lesbophobia is also linked to lesbian visibility month.

“It is no coincidence that violence like this is committed in the month of August, which is the month of lesbian visibility. My mandate has been carrying out a series of actions to make the fight and existence of lesbian women visible, and we will continue in this fight because there is no possible intimidation that would make us retreat from the fight for our rights”.

The councilor says that she adopts security measures on a daily basis and is part of the program to protect human rights defenders, in addition to having been granted a precautionary measure of protection by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

According to the councilwoman, Decradi’s chief delegate, Rita de Cassia Salim Tavares, informed that she will look for the IP (unique address that identifies a device on the internet) of the computer that sent the message in order to identify who sent it. According to the councilwoman’s lawyer, crimes such as racism (which is equated with LGBTphobia), threats, intolerance and gender-based political violence are being investigated. According to the Civil Police, agents carry out diligences to determine the facts.

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