The two people who down voted this are: A) confused about what the down vote is supposed to be for, or B) pedos.

Wait'll you hear about usa's controversy!

that was a shocking article, I had no idea that went on in Brazil.

A Brazilian court’s decision to acquit a 35-year-old man accused of raping a 12-year-old girl—arguing that they were “two young lovers” united by “a consensual emotional bond”

Some 34,000 Brazilian girls under the age of 14, mostly poor and Black, declared themselves as “married” in the census

I couldn't tell from the article. Does the Brazilian justice system work differently than I expect? It just says he was initially convicted, but then exonerated. Does that mean the charges were thrown out for lack of evidence, procedural missteps, or something of that nature? Or was it dismissed because the judges disagreed with the law? Or am I completely misreading/misunderstanding the whole thing?

Hi. Brazilian former lawyer here.

It was because the appeals court judges disagreed with the law, basically. See, any sort of sexual encounter with a person under 14 is considered statutory rape in Brazil, but the judges decided to base their decision on the "regular" rape article, which requires some kind of violence, drugging or deception.

To be perfectly clear, this is not and never was up to them. If a conduct matches a criminal type, which this one absolutely does, the judge does not have the authority to ignore it because it doesn't match some other arbitrary type. You don't get to walk free from murder because you didn't rob a newsstand while murdering. This decision was entirely illegal and will be reversed, especially now thay the media is aware. I just hope the disgusting pervert judges who wrote it are expelled from their jobs as well.

It surprises me that the judge(s) don't seem to care if their decision is reversed. In Canada it's somewhat frowned upon for judges to seemingly take the law into their own hands, only to be reversed at a later date.

I find the thought of judges deciding guilt or innocence horrifying. That it would lead to unthinkable outcomes in the US. Jury trials are one of the most important freedoms ever extracted from the ruling class.

Judges appointed by politicians/other bureaucrats would lead to very bad faith, cynical people being appointed, or elected. The judges in the US are quite corrupted for the prosecution. They pretend to believe the prosecution and cops, and support direct violations of the bill of rights that no reasonable person would think are not violations. They by and large are cynical and think the Republic is already dead, it's only the citizens that either don't know it, or are contesting it. For all of their faults, you want them deciding guilt and innocence before old boys appointed by the network.

The rapist in this case has ties to large drug cartels. It's not unthinkable that the judges do too and were told to let him off the hook. Either that or they're pedos themselves, but there's definitely something very strange going on that hasn't been made public.

In Brazil, only crimes against life such as murder or manslaughter are put before a jury.

Well that is good at least the most serious ones are. The UK was the birthplace of modern jury trials, and they cancelled them for charges up to 3 years in prison. Their "left" politicians under labor did it at that, (after the tories did up to 1 year in prison in 2020,) after they sabotaged the workings of the courts to create backlogs, and used the backlogs as en excuse to cancel jury trials.

Most of west europe has them to lesser degrees than the UK and US and the like.

A twelve year old child is unable to consent to an adult.

Not in all countries. That's US law.

Not for lack of Republicans trying to make it legal

It's Brazil law.

https://www.icmec.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/ICMEC-Brazil-National-Legislation.pdf

This overall discussion is about Brazil. Please stay on topic.

This judge did. Strangely, the age of consent in Brazil is 14. Seems easy enough to reverse the decision, but I don't know how Brazil would handle this now they have freed the rapist.

https://www.icmec.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/ICMEC-Brazil-National-Legislation.pdf

I may be wrong but I think judges are not elected nor politically appointed in Brazil (I think the exception is the supreme Court). They are like other public jobs that you have to pass an exam and compete with other candidates.

How can any 12 year old have the cognitive maturity to consent no matter where they are from?

MuSt bE oK tHen. Dirt bag.

Well, here in Australia they can be criminal masterminds and do adult time for adult crime... so...

Without knowing anything besides what's written in the title, I predict the rapist had money and connections. 😔

Most important context regarding Brazil: the majority of judges see themselves as little gods. The absolute worst thing that can legally happen to one is being retired early.

By Brazilian law, this should have counted as rape, end of story. The judge's reasoning is more twisted than a sailor's knot: "consensual affectionate link" because the mother was "ok with it". This wasn't a case of a judge being bought (which happens a lot aroud here), because the perpetrator is poor.

Now, the really interesting thing: said judge, Magid Lauef Lauar, is a sexual harasser. Due to the CSA case gaining large media attention, some victims of his advances have decided to finally break the silence. Two women that were interns in 1997 and 2009, the third is his nephew, in 2016, when the boy was 14 - https://www.estadao.com.br/politica/raquel-landim/vitimas-de-desembargador-que-absolveu-estuprador-vem-a-publico-e-a-justica-vai-ficar-omissa/