Impunity - Brazil

IMPUNITY-BRAZIL WHEREAS journalists Zaqueu de Oliveira and Aristeu Guida da Silva were murdered on March 21 and May 12, 1995, respectively, and the murderers have not been brought to justice the attempt to summarily acquit the confessed murderer of Zaqueu de Oliveira casts doubt on the integrity of the trial and of the judges the members of the court that tried the Oliveira case made clear their prejudice against the murdered journalist in statements to the lAPA, and the murderer's defense attorney admitted to being related by marriage to an employee of the court the IAPA proved that key witnesses in the Guida murder trial retracted their statements after receiving death threats the main suspect in that murder, councilman Juarez Carlos Rodriguez Silva, was released on a writ of habeas corpus and later was killed one of the self-confessed murderers of Guida escaped from prison under mysterious circumstances and another was transferred to a less secure prison at his request THE IAPA GENERAL ASSEMBLY RESOLVES to call on the Brazilian authorities to commit themselves to guaranteeing the investigation of the cases and effective punishment of the guilty parties to request the Supreme Court to oversee the conduct of the public trial in the Oliveira case and reassign it to the Belo Horizonte court where it is more likely to be fair to ask the attorney general's office to order new police investigations to guarantee that key testimony is obtained to request the Supreme Court transfer the Guida case to a court in Rio de Janeiro to guarantee the integrity of the trial to ask the attorney general's office to thoroughly investigate the escape of one of Guida's confessed murderers and to take steps to prevent any recurrence.