Suspects to be tried by jury a year after transvestite's murder

A year following the murder of transvestite Dandara dos Santos, the accused killers are to be tried before a jury next month. The case reverberated internationally after a video showing the victim being brutally beaten surfaced on social media.

The announcement was made by Prosecutor Marcus Renan Palácio in Fortaleza, where the crime was committed.

In addition to the five suspects named by Judge Danielle Pontes de Arruda Pinheiro, a sixth accused—found only recently—will be brought before the jury in the same trial. Of the 12 identified perpetrators (eight adults, four teenagers), two are still on the loose.

Footage showing the attacks against Dandara on February 2017 was instrumental in taking the accused killers before a jury.

“The video is shocking and the accused were so convinced they were to go unpunished that they committed this hideous crime and were bold enough to film it—to no avail, as the video sparked all this repercussion. The pieces of evidence listed are overwhelming and irrefutable regarding the nature of the offense and how it came about,” the prosecutor said.

Palácio notes that the swiftness in Dandara's case is an exception, as less than 10% of homicides are investigated in Brazil.

“Dandara's case is emblematic for the homophobic sentiment that led the accused to perpetrate this act of barbarism, but the crime of homophobia doesn't have its own definition [in Brazilian law], as the crime of feminicide does today.”

A bill that was under consideration in the Senate brought special definitions of crimes based on discrimination or prejudice against gender, sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity. The piece was shelved in 2016.

The defendants are to be tried for murder aggravated by turpitude, the use of cruel means, and the deprivation of the victim's ability to defend herself, as well as the corruption of minors.

Gender-based violence

Despite the backwash, Dandara's murder made no significant impact on the number of cases of discrimination and attacks reported in Ceará, said Dário Bezerra, a member of the political coordination of the Asa Branca Resistence Center.

Not acknowledging these cases as hate crimes makes it difficult for the vulnerable situation of LGBT people to be properly understood, he argued.

“The prejudice against LGBT people must be understood as an ingrained phenomenon in society, as a relation of power that brings these people to a standing inferior to that of others. Only when this is recognized by the state can we understand that these crimes are motivated by LGBT-phobia. It's hard to address the issue and convince the authorities that these crimes have a special motivation otherwise,” he said.

According to the National Association of Transvestites and Transsexuals, the number of murder cases targeting trans people in 2017 was the highest in the last ten years: 179 across the country.

Translated by Fabrício Ferreira