RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Third Criminal Panel of the Federal Appellate Court in Brasília (TJ DF) rejected an appeal and sustained as attempted feminicide a crime committed against a transgender woman. The decision was unanimous.
When analyzing the case, Judge Waldir Leôncio Lopes Júnior considered that “the attribution of feminicide was due to the contempt or discrimination of the plaintiff’s trans-woman situation.”
The ruling was taken in the case of student Jéssica Oliveira, a victim of attempted murder in April last year. She was punched, kicked, beaten with chairs and a 3-kilo rock by four people inside a snack bar in Taguatinga. CCTV cameras recorded the crime.
The assailants appealed the decision because they could not be charged with attempted feminicide since the victim is not “biologically female.”
When deciding on the case, Judge Waldir Leôncio Lopes Júnior says he is aware of the “controversy surrounding the issue.” However, according to the magistrate, “one cannot fail to consider the dual vulnerability to which transgender women, the group to which the victim belongs, are exposed.”
“On the one hand, due to the existing discrimination in relation to the female gender, and on the other hand, due to prejudice from part of society when seeking the recognition of their gender identity,” says the report.
In May last year, the TJ/DF had already decided that the “Maria da Penha Law”, which protects women in case of assault, is also applicable to transgender individuals.