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Brazil: Lesbian Couple Seeks Redress for Police Brutality
07/01/1999

Although three years have passed since the Pernambuco police arrested Rosana Lage Ligero and Marli JosÈ da Silva Barbosa, subjecting them to physical and psychological torture while in custody, the lesbian couple continues to battle the Brazilian judicial system in a case that is currently pending in the Supreme Court.

Ms. Lage Ligero and Ms. Barbosa ask for the support of the international human rights community in writing letters to the following authorities. In particular they ask for a strong appeal to the Ministry of Justice urging it to:

• Carry out a thorough investigation into Ms. Lage Ligero and Ms. Barbosa's case and into the reported violations of due legal process such that enable the Supreme Court to adequately review the case and grant the women a fair and expeditious hearing .
• Fully and impartially investigate the torture and violence used by the police officers of Jaboat o dos Guararapes against Ms. Lage Ligero and Ms. Barbosa while held in detention.
• Take legal action against those officers responsible for the acts of brutality to which Ms. Lage Ligero and Ms. Barbosa were subjected as a consequence of their gender and sexual identity.

Please, send your letters to:

Sr. Fernando Henrique Cardoso
Presidente da Rep·blica do Brasil

Palacio do Planalto - PraÁa dos Tres Poderes
Brasilia DF - BRASIL
CEP 70 150-900
email: protocolo@planalto.gov.br

Sr. Renan Calheiros
Ministro da JustiÁa do Brasil

Esplanada dos MinistÈrios - Bloco T - 4 andar
Brasilia DF - BRASIL
CEP 70 064-900

Sr. Jose Gregori
Secret·rio Nacional de Direitos Humanos

Esplanada dos MinistÈrios - Bloco T
MinistÈrio da JustiÁa - 4 andar - sala 420
CEP 70 064-900 Brasilia DF - BRASIL

Please, send copies of your correspondence to:

Rosana Lage Ligero
Marli Jose da Silva Barbosa

Rua Giacomo Balla, 52 Pq. Bristol
S,,o Paulo SP - BRASIL
CEP 04191-030

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

In June 1996, after a seemingly partial investigation, the local police in Jaboat,,o dos Guararapes, Pernambuco, arrested the two women who had been living openly as a lesbian couple. The couple was charged as "intellectual authors" of the murder of Mrs. Joseth Pessoa de Siqueira. It was reported that the police solely based the charges on a single testimony - that of a woman living in the couple's building - who told police Ms. Lage Ligero and Ms. Barbosa had paid two men to kill their neighbor Mrs. Pessoa.

Although the police claimed to have a judicial order for the women's arrest, such order was only issued two days after the women had been held in police custody. While in custody the two women were beaten with a rubber whip and threatened with rape. They were also verbally abused for their lesbianism. According to one of the victims, the two police officers conducting the interrogation forced each woman to perform oral sex on them with the intention of showing them " what they were missing by not having sex with men". Portraying them as "homicidal lesbians" to the local press, the police continued to batter the women when they refused to be photographed by newspaper reporters.

Refusing to sign a written confession and to pay a bribe demanded by the police, Ms. Lage Ligero and Ms. Barbosa were transferred to several detention centers and eventually moved to a prison where they remained incarcerated for eleven months. Though they feared further retaliation by the police, the women agreed to be examined by the State's Legal Medical Office which corroborated the physical injuries they had sustained as a result of the police beatings. Following a public hearing in 1997, a judge ordered their release on a temporary basis. During the hearing, they were repeatedly referred to by court and police authorities as "the homosexuals".

Despite the evidence of police misconduct, however, Ms. Lage Ligero and Ms. Barbosa have for two years been awaiting a review of their case by Brazil's Supreme Court. During this time, they have insistently and unsuccessfully petitioned the Ministry of Justice for a full and impartial investigation into the wrongful charges as well as into the police brutality and torture perpetrated against them due to their sexual identity. "We are afraid," one of the women stated," because no one offers us any protection if we denounce publicly all the violations we suffered. As long as this case remains uninvestigated and undecided by the courts we cannot rebuild our lives or seek justice".

The Ligero and Barbosa case looms somberly against a backdrop of police brutality in Brazil marked by a 21% increase in reported complaints of police torture and beatings between 1996 and 1997. Furthermore, the case underscores an alarming pattern of anti-gay violence, as well as other human rights violations directed at gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgender persons, by the Brazilian Civil Police. "Extortion, beatings, home invasions, theft and sex acts performed for the amusement of the police are common practice", as Luiz Mott of Grupo Gay de Bahia reported in his report Epidemic of Hate, in 1996.

The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission is concerned that Ms. Lage Ligero and Ms. Barbosa may have been wrongfully arrested and charged as a consequence of their sexual identities. It is also concerned that violence and torture were perpetrated against them by police while in detention, and that this violence was instigated or intensified by homophobia. The treatment of Ms. Lage Ligero and Ms. Barbosa openly violates some of the basic human rights recognized by Brazil as a signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Article 9.1 of the ICCPR states: "Everyone has the right to liberty and security of person. No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest or detention. No one shall be deprived of his liberty except on such grounds and in accordance with such procedure as are established by law." Article 14.2 states: "Everyone charged with a criminal offense shall have the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to the law." And Article 7 states that "No one shall be subjected torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment".

The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission is further concerned that Ms. Lage Ligero and Ms. Barbosa have been denied a fair and expeditious hearing in seeking redress for the abuse they have undergone, and that their sexual identities have subjected them to ill-treatment and delay in judicial procedures. This violates a number of internationally recognized protections. Most fundamentally, Article 14 of the the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) states that "All persons shall be equal before the courts and tribunals." Further, Article 8 of the U.N Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Being Subjected to Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment states: "Any person who alleges that he has been subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment by or at the instigation of a public official, shall have the right to complain to, and to have his case impartially examined by, the competent authorities of the State concerned."

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION FROM BRAZIL

You can read Ms. Lage Ligero and Ms. Barbosa's account in one of the following websites (in Portuguese):

http://www2.uol.com.br:800/mixbrasil/cio/junho99/clitor.htm#not3 (shorter note)

http://www.gay.com.br/marli_rosana/ (this account has been translated into English, see below):

At the request of UMSP (Sao Paulo Women's Union) and the Grupo CORSA we are sending you a denouncement of torture and discrimination against two lesbians in Brazil. Please refer to the web page http://www.gay.com.br/marli_rosana/default.htm, a translation of which follows below: