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September 28, 2016 5:02PM EDT | Dispatches Available In English Português

A Major Setback for Justice in Brazil

Court Voids Convictions Against 73 Military Police Officers

Maria Laura Canineu

Brazil Director, Americas Division
@mlcanineu

César Muñoz
Senior Researcher, Americas
@_Cesar_Munoz

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On October 2, 1992, the blood of 111 dead prisoners literally flooded the corridors
July 1, 2022 | Dispatches
of the Carandirú detention center in São Paulo, Brazil. This week, an appeals
Yanomami Indigenous
court voided the convictions of 73 military police officers for their participation
People at Risk in
in the killings. “There was no massacre. It was self-defense,” concluded one
Venezuela
judge. 
July 1, 2022 | Statement
But evidence presented in court debunks the claim of self-defense and points to a
UN Human Rights
level of brutality hard to comprehend. 
Assessment Should Guide
the Agenda of
It all started at 2 p.m., when a riot Negotiations in Venezuela
broke out in the prison, which
housed more than 2,000 inmates,
greater than double capacity.
MOST VIEWED
Military police thwarted efforts to
negotiate with the rioters and, at 1 June 29, 2022 | News Release
around 4:30 p.m., stormed Wing Morocco/Spain:
Prisoners at the Carandiru Detention Horrific Migrant
Nine. No police were injured by
House, where 111 inmates died during a Deaths at Melilla
gunfire. police crackdown, tell journalists that the Border
incident was a 'massacre' and call for human
The state’s forensic analysis rights groups to investigate conditions at 2 July 4, 2022 | Commentary

the dangerously overcrowded jail, Brazil's Ethiopia's Other

concluded all shots came from
largest, on October 6, 1992. © 1992 Conflict
police and also said the police
Reuters/Jamil Ismail
altered the crime scene. Many
3 November 12, 2018 | News
inmates were killed while naked, Release
on their knees, with their hands up. There was also evidence that police officers Pakistan: Girls
executed inmates who were witnesses, wounded, or had been forced to remove Deprived of Education
bodies, altering the scene of the crime.  4 July 4, 2022 | Dispatches
Myanmar Military
To say there was no massacre that day is an affront to the families of the victims Atrocities Laid Bare in
and the rule of law.  Gruesome Footage

5 May 17, 2021 | News Release

For many years, the investigation went nowhere. The Center for Justice and Pandemic’s Dire
International Law (CEJIL), the Teotônio Vilela Commission for Human Rights, Global Impact on
and Human Rights Watch jointly brought the Carandirú case before the Inter- Education
American Commission, and, in 2000, the commission condemned Brazil over the
killings. 

No one has been held accountable. In 2001, a jury convicted the commander of
the operation, Ubiratan Guimarães, of 102 counts of homicide, but an appeals
court overturned the verdict. Between 2013 and 2014, five juries convicted 73
military police officers of crimes related to their alleged role in the killings. They
remained free pending appeal, and on September 27, two members of the appeals
court ruled that the trials were invalid due to lack of evidence that linked
individual police officers to specific killings. A third member of the court
declared the 73 officers not guilty. The prosecutor’s office is planning an appeal. 

Police officers kill thousands of people every year in Brazil. Some are
extrajudicial executions, and impunity for abuses remains the norm, as Human
Rights Watch and other organizations have documented. 

If nobody is held accountable for the Carandirú massacre, it will reinforce the
widespread perception that police in Brazil can get away with even the most
egregious atrocities.

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Region / Country Americas, Brazil

MORE READING

July 1, 2022 | Dispatches July 1, 2022 | Statement

Yanomami Indigenous UN Human Rights

People at Risk in Assessment Should
Venezuela Guide the Agenda of
Negotiations in
Venezuela

REPORTS

May 12, 2022 | Report July 14, 2021 | Report

“I Became Scared, This “Why Do They Want to

Was Their Goal” Make Me Suffer Again?”
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