Federal police have indicted Silvio Almeida, a former human rights minister in the Lula (PT) government, following an investigation that revealed allegations of sexual harassment. The indictment has been sent to the STF (Supreme Federal Court) and alleges sexual harassment.
This information was initially reported by TV Globo and confirmed by. sheet.
The accusations against the minister were forwarded to the Me Too Organization and revealed by the Metropoles portal in September last year. The accusations will include one by the Minister of Racial Equality, Aniel Franco.
The case is being handled in secret in court and reported by Minister Andres Mendonça. Earlier this year, Silvio Almeida testified for more than two hours to federal police during an investigation.
Silvio Almeida’s attitude since the information came to light has been to deny the accusations and deny having committed the alleged crimes. The former minister went so far as to say in an interview with UOL in February this year that Aniel had “lost his character” and had fallen into a political trap.
“I think she (Aniel) fell into the trap of not understanding how politics works, and I fell into that trap too,” he said.
“I didn’t pay attention to things that I should have paid more attention to. Neither did she. She was absorbed in her role. She took part in spreading gossip and conspiracies about me in an attempt to wear me down.”
At the time, the former minister published a manifesto on social media in which he said he would resume public life. “I’m alive. I’m still outraged. I don’t want pity or ‘second chances.’ I want justice.”
In a statement, the minister refuted Silvio Almeida’s statements, saying he used the public forum to eliminate complaints and intimidate victims of harassment.
“Attempts to discredit victims of sexual harassment, minimize their suffering, and turn serious reports into ‘gossip’ and ‘political squabbles’ are unacceptable. On the eve of submitting a statement to federal police investigating the case, the suspect chose to use a public forum to attack and disqualify the accusation, perpetuating the cycle of violence and threatening other victims,” Aniel’s memo said.
In a statement to PF, Aniel said Silvio Almeida’s “inappropriate approaches” escalated into physical harassment.
The minister also told Veja that there had been “unfavorable behavior” on his part, including inappropriate contact and brazen advances, but that he did not report the incident out of a feeling that it was the victim’s fault, not the perpetrator’s, as well as “a fear of losing credibility and being judged.”
“It is important to be clear that what happened was a crime of sexual harassment. I was a victim of sexual harassment and this needs to be strengthened to prevent women from continuing to be victims of this type of attack,” Aniel told Veja magazine.
The Presidential Office’s Committee on Public Ethics (CEP) is also investigating Silvio Almeida. Since public institutions are involved, the facts will be investigated at the administrative level. The investigation was formally announced at the CEP’s 27th Extraordinary Meeting held on September 6, 2024, the day after the allegations became public.
As a result of the incident, President Lula fired Silvio Almeida the day after the allegations were revealed. Prior to the decision, PT members met individually with Almeida, and after announcing his resignation, they met individually with Aniel Franco. Since then, the head of the human rights department has been Macae Evaristo.
In his official resignation statement, the government said it considered it “unsustainable” for the president to remain as minister, given the nature of the sexual harassment accusations.
The episode sparked political conflict not only within the Department for Racial Equality, but also between the department’s chief and her former government colleagues. A month after the incident was discovered, the minister fired Yuri Silva, then director general of Sinapil (National System for the Promotion of Racial Equality), who had ties to Silvio Almeida.
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