Brazil | Five jailed for horror video murder of trans woman (Warning: graphic)

Dandara dos Santos will finally receive some measure of justice after her killers were jailed for her horrific murder, which was captured on a video that went viral.

In February 2017, the 42-year-old transgender woman from Fortaleza, Ceara state, Brazil, was filmed being sadistically abused, punched, kicked and beaten with a wooden plank.

The murderers laughed and taunted dos Santos in the street with homophobic and transphobic comments and mocked her breasts. The bloodied woman was then carted off in a wheelbarrow and shot twice in the head.

The incident, which saw the terrified victim pleading for her life and for her mother, shocked the nation and the world.

Now, five of the eight accused of the transphobic murder have been sent to prison, with sentences ranging from 14 to 21 years in jail.

Francisco José Monteiro de Oliveira Junior received the harshest sentence for firing the shots that killed dos Santos.

The others were jailed for their part in attacking and beating her. None of the men admited to the murder, insisting that while they lynched her they never intended to kill dos Santos. Two of the murderers have appealed the sentence.

Dos Santos’ grieving mother, Francisca Ferreira de Vasconcelos – who previously lost her son and grandson – earlier said that she would not attend the trial because the pain was simply too much.

“I’ve already lost a lot and I felt on my skin what these people are capable of doing. This trial will not change anything in my life,” she told the BBC.

Globo reported that a group of LGBT activists held a protest outside the Clóvis Beviláqua Forum, where the trial took place. Alisson Silva from Integral Group of the Polo Trans Collective explained that “it is very important to be present to see justice being done”.

While LGBT Brazilians have many rights, including marriage equality and the right to adopt, the country has the world’s highest LGBT murder rate, with 387 individuals killed in 2017; that’s approximately one LGBT person murdered every 19 hours.