BRAZIL
A 23-year-old digital media influencer, Mariana Ferrer, was humiliated during a court hearing after she filed a rape complaint against businessman André de Camargo Aranha.
Cláudio Gastão Filho, the accused’s lawyer, insulted the young woman, called her a liar, and displayed ‘sexually provocative’ photos of her unrelated to the alleged crime. Throughout the case, Mariana was painted in a promiscuous light.
Mariana Ferrer filed a rape complaint against businessman André de Camargo Aranha, who allegedly raped the young woman in December 2018, during a party in Florianópolis. The rapist was acquitted by the courts today, after the State Public Ministry denounced the businessman for the rape of a vulnerable.
During the process, the prosecutor who was handling the case was replaced by another prosecutor who held that Mariana was not incapable of consenting to the sexual act and that, therefore, there would be no malice. The case was interpreted to support the narrative that the businessman had no intention of forcing sexual relations with her.
From the beginning of the process, the charge against the rapist was one of rape of the vulnerable. In other words, that he practiced “carnal conjunction or libidinous act” – which means any kind of sexual intercourse, from penetration to oral sex – with Mariana without her being able to offer resistance because, according to the girl’s account, she was doped.
The final decisions of both the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the judge were that, although it is proven that Spider practiced sexual acts through the reports, such as the examination showing the rupture of Mariana’s hymen and what proves that there was semen of his in her clothing, there would not be enough evidence to prove the vulnerability of the victim.
In the case, in addition to the expert reports that prove the hymen rupture and the existence of the accused’s semen, there is the report of Uber’s driver who took Mariana home, the only person who saw her after the event, in which he states that she was under the effect of some narcotic substance.
In this weekend, thousands of women’s across the country took to the streets to demand justice for Mariana Ferrer and to denounce the rape culture of the androcentric capitalist system. There were reportedly protests in over 20 different cities across Brazil.
