The minister Flavio Dinodo STF (Supreme Federal Court)voted this Friday (17) to keep the .
The constitutionality of the law is being analyzed in the Court’s virtual plenary session. In this trial format, ministers have a period of one week to register their votes in the electronic system for each process.
Dino, who is the rapporteur of the action, was the only one to speak out so far.
The case reached the Supreme Court through an action proposed by Conamp (National Association of Members of the Public Ministry)which questions the federal law that, in 2022, classified the crime of institutional violence.
According to the standard, institutional violence would mean subjecting the victim or witness of a crime to “unnecessary, repetitive or invasive procedures”, capable of making them relive the situation of violence.
For Conamp, however, the law has a subjective wording and could create legal uncertainty in the investigation of crimes, in addition to limiting the actions of the MP (Public Prosecutor’s Office).
The association argues that the rule would leave the Public Ministry subject to external interpretations of what would be considered inappropriate, compromising its autonomy.
In a vote, Dino argues that the MP’s autonomy does not mean “sovereign self-regulation” nor does it place its members above the law. He stated that whoever decides what is a crime in Brazil is the Legislative Branch, and everyone must follow these laws.
The minister also refuted the argument that the wording of the legislation was subjective and stated that the detailed and hyper-precise description of what characterizes a crime is not required by the Constitution.
“The principle of exhaustiveness does not require criminal law to exhaustively describe, in casuistic and exhaustive terms, each possible type of criminal conduct. It does require that the type provide sufficiently determined elements so that the recipient of the norm can safely foresee the legal consequences of their conduct, and so that the magistrate has objective parameters in its application”, he stated.
Dino also highlighted that the criminalization of institutional violence complies with international commitments made by Brazil to avoid revictimization.
He cited that the Inter-American Court of Human Rights has already recognized that subjecting victims to unnecessary and vexatious procedures constitutes “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment”.
Mariana Ferrer case at the STF
The law questioned in the action was sanctioned in 2022 and drawn up based on the Mariana Ferrer case, which accused businessman André Aranha of rape.
In hearings whose videos were later released, Mariana discussed aspects of her personal life unrelated to the process, motivating the Legislative Branch’s initiative to criminalize institutional violence.
Parallel to this action, at the end of March, the STF asked for the nullity of the case against André Aranha.
She maintains that, during the processing of the case, she was subjected to humiliation, irony and insults from the defense lawyer, without effective intervention from the judge, the Public Prosecutor’s Office or the public defense.
With the recognition of the general repercussion, the case will be taken to the plenary of the Supreme Court, which will have to establish a thesis of mandatory application for other instances of the Judiciary regarding the treatment of victims in rape cases. The trial date has not yet been set.
