Lula’s former human rights minister formally accused of sexual misconduct

Brazil President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva speaks during a plenary session at the COP30 U.N. Climate Summit, Monday, Nov. 10, 2025, in Belem, Brazil. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazil’s federal police formally accused President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva ’s former human rights minister Silvio Almeida of sexual misconduct after he was fired over the allegations last year, a police official said Saturday.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly speak about the case.

Prosecutors will now decide whether to press charges. If they do so, the Supreme Court will either throw them out or accept them, in which case Almeida would face a trial.

Local media outlets reported that police had formally accused Almeida on Friday. He has not commented since then, but has previously denied allegations of wrongdoing.

Lula fired Almeida last September after MeToo Brazil, an organization that defends women victims of sexual violence, said that it had received complaints of sexual misconduct by the former minister.

The press named the minister for racial equality, Anielle Franco, as one of the alleged victims, and in the aftermath she saluted Lula’s decision.

Franco entered politics after the murder of her sister Marielle Franco, a councilwoman in Rio de Janeiro, whose killing in 2018 reverberated around the world.

The accusations were a blow to Lula’s government. A Black law professor, Almeida was one of the most vocal people in the leftist leader’s administration against racism — alongside Franco.

Isabel Rodrigues, a professor in Sao Paulo state, said last year that Almeida sexually assaulted her. “There’s still a long way to go before effective justice in this case,” she said Saturday on Instagram.

“As a victim I have something to say: don’t let go of the hands of women,” she added.

Violence against women is rife in Brazil. More than one in three women was a victim of sexual or gender-based violence over the course of a year, according to a 2025 report by the think tank Brazilian Forum on Public Safety, the highest number since records began in 2017. All forms of violence against women have increased since then.

Eléonore Hughes, The Associated Press