The case of the femicide of the young Brazilian Eduarda Santos The controversy sparked when, during the court hearings, the main defendant said he perceived himself as a woman.
The crime occurred in the early morning of February 16, 2022, in the Llao Llao municipal park, where the defendant Fernando Alves Ferreira shot Santos four times, killing him.
In the last hearing, Chief Prosecutor Martín Lozada highlighted that “Not long ago, Fernando perceived himself as a woman. And from that, we call her Amanda. But the one who took Eduarda’s life was Fernando.”
It was not the only case. Days ago, the femicide Jonathan Luna, sentenced to life imprisonment for killing 12-year-old Micaela Ortega in 2016, said that she perceives herself as a woman and requested transfer to a penitentiary center according to their gender.
Daniela Heim, a professor at the National University of Río Negro, considered that the axis of the right to self-perceived gender identity should not be shifted. «It is a conquest of rights that should not be touched because there is suspicion or these sudden transitions make noise. When the charges were filed, this person did not recognize himself as Amanda but as Fernando. For this reason, the suspicion remains of relapsing into these opportunistic transitions»indicated.
The gender specialist researcher warned about the discussion of “clauses to prevent fraud or the need to establish specific mechanisms to prevent cases of fraud, such as changing your identity to retire early or to obtain some benefit. But the law of gender identity is clear: it is self-perception. You don’t have to try anything«.
Regarding the case of Bariloche, he admitted, what appears to be a sudden change, an opportunistic issue, draws attention. «It will be a matter of alleging and proving. The work of the prosecution and defense will be complex. Prosecutors must adopt criteria for these cases. But it is necessary to define criteria that do not affect the substantialization of the right to gender identity»he stated.
He defined the debate as “something very new. In fact, this discussion is taking place in several countries. The meaning of the law is to recognize the right of people. If you committed a crime, it doesn’t matter if you are a man or a woman.
In the case of the crime of the Brazilian in Bariloche, Alves is accused of having killed her from behind and with treachery. In this case, unlike simple homicide that goes from 8 to 25 years in prison, the penalty is life imprisonment, the same as femicide.
“I am concerned that people ask – or politics is committed – to modify the law for something that does not deserve it. Or that requirements be added to the law to make it difficult to exercise the right to a self-perceived gender identity. These cases are exceptional and do not deserve that the right be alteredHeim specified.
creative strategies
“The strategies of criminal lawyers are sometimes quite creative”said Mila Montaldo, feminist, graduate in Social Work, expert and coordinator of the Gender Commission of the Legitimate Civil Justice Association.
He considered that it is not by chance that “Within the framework of this self-perception, go with a request for a change of cover and a reduction in sentences. It is an objective fact. There are two people sentenced to life imprisonment for femicide. Both, with their abysmal distances in each case, have taken the life of a woman within the framework of a scenario where they made themselves visible, they represented themselves as men”.
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