Brazilian president-elect Dilma Rousseff, who was jailed and tortured during Brazil’s military dictatorship, was dubbed the “Joan of Arc of the insurgency” by a prosecutor at her 1970s trial, a newspaper said on Friday.
In previously undisclosed court documents obtained by Folha de Sao Paulo, Rousseff testified at her trial that she belonged to the Var-Palmares leftist rebel group, but took no part in any armed action by the group.
Rousseff, 62, who was elected Brazil’s first woman president on Oct. 31, was a member of the guerrilla organization fighting the military dictatorship that ruled Brazil from 1964 to 1985.
She was arrested in Sao Paulo in January 1970 and freed two years later. During her detention, she was subjected to torture to reveal the names of other militants.
At her trial, a military prosecutor called Rousseff the “Joan of Arc of the insurgency.”
The presiding judge wrote that Rousseff became a Marxist-Leninist after “analyzing Brazilian reality, in which she noted income disparities that caused growing poverty among most of the population, alongside the great wealth of a few who are in power and through political repression prevent the emancipation of the Brazilian people.”
The court documents appear to corroborate reports that Rousseff, while in prison and under torture, gave up the names of some of her comrades, a charge she has always denied.
At a Brazilian Senate hearing in 2008, Rousseff defended herself from a lawmaker’s accusations that she had lied to her captors during her time in jail.
“I was 19 years old,” Rousseff said. “I was brutally tortured, senator ... I am very proud to have lied, because lying under torture is not easy.”
“In a democracy you tell the truth. Under torture, if you are brave and honorable, you lie,” Rousseff said.
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