Woman With Carved Swastika Faked Her Attack, Police Concludes

The woman, a young student from Porto Alegre, will be charged with falsely reporting a crime

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Felipe Bächtold
Porto Alegre

The Rio Grande do Sul police closed the investigation on the case of a young woman who allegedly had a swastika carved in her skin in Porto Alegre on Wednesday (24th) with the conclusion that the victim cut herself.

The student had associated the alleged attack to the fact that, in the day after the election's first round, she was carrying a backpack with stickers with the colors of the LGBT movement and the words "Ele Não" (Not Him), as a protest against candidate Jair Bolsonaro (PSL).

Porto Alegre police concluded that young woman carved or let someone carve the swastika in her own body - Courtesy

After the police released its findings, Bolsonaro said on social media he expected retractions from people who connected the incident to him and his supporters. He also said that his opponent’s supporters orchestrate all claims associating his name with violent attacks.

"We expect a retraction of all people that, even with our disavowal, irresponsibly and with no evidence associated us to the cases of property damage and nazi "attacks," that today were deemed false by the authorities," said the candidate.
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The swastika case would be sent to court on Wednesday (24th). The young woman should be charged with falsely reporting a crime, but her attorney rejects the conclusion and is requesting additional investigations.

A forensic report said that all evidence leads to the woman either carving herself or letting someone else do it, with her full consent.

The markings were superficial and with even depths, which would hardly happen if the "victim had struggled or shown any reaction, either by fear, fright or mere reflexes," the document says.

Precinct chief Paulo César Jardim, who is responsible for the investigations, said that the young woman, a 19-year-old high school graduate, is a "sick, emotionally frail" person, who takes "powerful" psychiatric medications.

However, the officer denied that the woman fabricated the situation with any political intent of harming Bolsonaro.

Fernando Haddad's mandatory political broadcast highlighted the case in a segment about the political violence around the country in the days leading into the runoff.

Translated by NATASHA MADOV


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