By Fabio Teixeira
RIO DE JANEIRO, Jan 8 (Openly) - Brazil has requested that the international police organization Interpol help find and detain a man suspected of attacking the office of producers of a controversial Netflix movie that portrayed Jesus as gay, authorities said.
An arrest warrant was issued in Brazil for the suspect authorities say threw fire bombs into the headquarters of Brazilian comedy group Porta dos Fundos in Rio de Janeiro on Dec. 24.
The offices were closed, and no one was injured.
The suspect has fled to Russia, where he has spoken publicly and took credit for the attack.
Porta dos Fundos created a program entitled "The First Temptation of Christ," depicting Jesus as a young man bringing home a boyfriend to meet his family.
The movie has caused an uproar among Brazil's conservative Christians. About two million people have petitioned Netflix to remove the show from its online streaming service.
Several men can be seen on security camera footage attacking the building, but just one, identified as Eduardo Fauzi, was not wearing a mask. He has fled to Moscow.
In an interview to Projeto Colabora, a local news site, Fauzi said he was among the attackers and was considering requesting political asylum in Russia.
The request for an Interpol red notice was made on Tuesday, according to Agencia Brasil, the nation's public news agency, by Disney Rosseti, acting director-general of the Federal Police.
A red notice is a request by Interpol asking law enforcement around the world to locate and provisionally arrest a person pending extradition, surrender or similar legal action.
Brazil and Russia have had an extradition agreement since 2002.
Interpol has not yet put Fauzi on its public list for red notices, and representatives did not reply to a request for comment.
According to its website, red notice requests are checked to make sure they comply with Interpol's rules.
Brazil is home to the world's largest Catholic population as well as a growing evangelical Christian community supportive of the right-wing government of President Jair Bolsonaro.
Bolsonaro once said he would rather have a dead son than a gay son.
His son, Eduardo Bolsonaro, called the Porta dos Fundos' show "garbage" on his Twitter account, saying the filmmakers "do not represent Brazilian society." (Reporting by Fabio Teixeira @ffctt; Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst. Please credit Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's and LGBT+ rights, human trafficking, property rights, and climate change. Visit www.trust.org)
Openly is an initiative of the Thomson Reuters Foundation dedicated to impartial coverage of LGBT+ issues from around the world.
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
