The cancellation of the mandate of councilor Gabriel Monteiro (PL) was published in this Friday’s edition (19) of the Official Gazette of the City Council of Rio de Janeiro. In a session that lasted six and a half hours, 48 councilors voted for the impeachment and two were against: Chagas Bola (União Brasil) and the other, Gabriel Monteiro himself.
Of the total of 50 parliamentarians present, at least 34 votes were needed to interrupt the mandate. Councilman Carlos Bolsonaro (Republicans) did not attend the session because he is on leave for personal reasons.
In Resolution No. 1,574, of August 18, 2022, the mayor, Carlo Caiado (without a party) declares the loss of the mandate of councilor Gabriel Luiz Monteiro de Oliveira, for conduct incompatible with parliamentary decorum, “under the terms of Representation No. 1/2022, based on Art. 49, Item 2, of the Organic Law of the Municipality, combined with the provisions of Art. 7, Item 3, of Decree-Law No. 201, of February 27, 1967, and in conjunction with the prescriptions provided for in Art. 5, items 1, 2 and 4 and in Art. 12, Item 3, of Plenary Resolution No. 1,133, of April 3, 2009”.
In May of this year, Gabriel Monteiro became a defendant in the Rio de Janeiro court. He was accused by the Public Ministry of Rio de Janeiro (MPRJ) of filming sexual intercourse with a 15-year-old girl. In the Chamber of Aldermen, the congressman was tried for breach of parliamentary decorum for staging a minor in a shopping center; assault on a homeless person invited to simulate a robbery in Lapa and for the video recording of sexual intercourse with a minor, whose images were later leaked on the internet.
The complaints made by the councilor’s advisors for sexual harassment and rape, which were presented during the work of the Ethics Committee, were not included in the final report, because they were not part of the initial complaint.
The rapporteur of the case for breach of decorum by Gabriel Monteiro in the Council of Ethics of the Chamber, Chico Alencar (PSOL), said that the videos were edited in order to abuse vulnerable people. Alencar highlighted in the report that it is a crime to film sex scenes with minors. “The councilman’s conduct, when filming sex scenes with minors, is a crime. It is in the Child and Adolescent Statute. It is a crime to photograph, film, sex scenes involving children and adolescents. Storing video, photography with explicit sex scene is a crime. The videos have astounding dialogue.”
Defense
Monteiro’s defense, however, continued with the argument that the staging with the teenager in shopping center was consented by the young woman’s mother, that the recording with the homeless person, that he would have been aggressive, was a social experiment, and that the councilor did not know that the girl he had a relationship with was a minor. According to lawyer Sandro Figueredo, Monteiro was the victim of a conspiracy by the so-called trailer mafia, which he would have denounced.
For questioning parliamentary conduct, almost all the councilors who occupied the rostrum during the trial, criticized Monteiro, known for posting on his YouTube channel inspections of hospitals, shelters and public schools, in addition to alleged actions against criminals. Last to speak, Gabriel Monteiro denied having committed the crimes and asked not to be thrown “into the lions’ den”.
Despite the loss of his mandate, Gabriel Monteiro would still be able to run for a seat as a federal deputy in the next election. When he registered his candidacy with the Electoral Court, he was a councilor and there were no impediments to running for office.
In yesterday’s session, in addition to having his mandate revoked, Gabriel Monteiro was ineligible for ten years, two for which he still had to complete the mandate of the Chamber and eight for the loss of the position of councilor.
