PGR says parliamentary immunity protects Nikolas statements

The Attorney General’s Office (PGR) sent this Friday (26) an opinion to the Federal Supreme Court (STF) against the opening of an investigation targeting Deputy Nikolas Ferreira (PL-MG). The case reached the Supreme Court after associations representing the LGBTQIA+ community and 14 parliamentarians accused the deputy of having committed the crime of transphobia in a speech given from the Chamber’s tribune on International Women’s Day. In the document, the Deputy Attorney General of the Republic, Lindôra Araújo, stated that the statements are covered by parliamentary immunity. “In other words, as a result of parliamentary immunity, the statements made by the congressman – made in the parliamentary enclosure and related to the exercise of the elective office held by the congressman – are covered by the immunity provided for in article 53, caput, of the Federal Constitution”, he said. On March 8, Nikolas Ferreira wore a yellow wig and said that “he felt like a woman” and that “women are losing their space for men who feel like women”. For entities and parliamentarians, the deputy’s speech promoted hate speech for associating a transsexual woman with “a threat that needs to be fought, an allusion to a supposed danger that does not exist”. Another argument is that the parliamentarian published the video of the speech on his social networks, with the inclusion of photos of trans women, which escapes parliamentary immunity. After the episode, through social networks, Nikolas Ferreira denied that his speech was transphobic. “I defended the right of women not to lose their space in trans sports – given the biological difference – and not to have a man in the women’s bathroom. There is no transphobia in my speech. I clarified the example with a (shocking) wig. What passes from that is hysteria and storytelling,” he concluded. The actions are reported by Minister André Mendonça. There is no date for the final judgment.

Agência Brasil