A Brazilian protester was sentenced to 14 years in prison. One of her crimes was writing a message in lipstick on a statue during demonstrations in 2023.
Debora Rodrigues, 39, was recently sentenced after being convicted of involvement with a criminal organization with the intent to launch a coup, according to the BBC.
Rodrigues was a supporter of former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro. His supporters attacked government buildings after he lost to the current president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, in the 2022 presidential election. Hundreds of Bolsonaro supporters took part in the protest.
Rodrigues, who works as a hairdresser, wrote, “You lost, idiot,” on the statue, saying, “I went to the protests and I didn’t imagine they would be so turbulent,” according to the BBC.
Justice Cristiano Zanin, one of a panel of five judges overseeing Rodrigues’s case, stressed she was not being tried solely for the graffiti and was convicted of multiple offenses.
Many in Brazil believe her sentence is too harsh and partisan. It might as well be a life sentence. She will be in her mid-fifties when she gets out.
Justice de Moraes Strikes Again
Rodrigues was arrested as part of a broader investigation into an alleged coup plot against communist President Lula da Silva.
The 39-year-old hairdresser apologised for writing “You lost, idiot” on the statue of Justice outside the Supreme Court. The incident was dubbed the “lipstick coup”.
She maintains that she did not take part in any violence.
“I went to the protests and I didn’t imagine that they would be so turbulent,” said Rodrigues. “I have never done anything illegal in my life”.
Rodrigues didn’t enter any buildings, riot, or commit violence, and said she wrote the comment in the heat of the moment.
People entered the building, rioting. It was labeled a coup.
But Moraes, in his ruling, found Rodrigues was “unquestionably aligned with the criminal dynamic” of the 2023 mob.
Justice Alexandre de Moraes stated that she aligned herself with the coup plotters.
She has already spent two years in a penitentiary, and then it was converted to home confinement.
She was found guilty of multiple crimes, including destruction of property, membership in a criminal organization, and participation in an attempted coup.
Her other crimes included calling the administration names, going to another protest, and joining a criminal organization. The political opposition was deemed criminal.
The overcharging and oversentencing are the same type of abuse we saw for the J6 paraders.
Subscribe to the Daily Newsletter
wpDiscuz
