WHEREAS in a friendly agreement with the Brazilian government in 2009 the Interamerican Commission on Civil Rights suggested reopening of the case of Manoel Leal de Oliveira, murdered in January, 1998, so that those who ordered the crime may be identified; by October, 2010 the case had not been reopened; and
WHEREAS the former mayor of Eunápolis, Paulo Dapé, and his assistants Maria José Ferreira Souza (akaMaria Sindoiá), Waldemir Batista de Oliveira (Duda), and Antonio Oliveira Santos (Toninho da Caixa), accused of the murder of radio reporter Ronaldo Santana de Araújo on October 9, 1997 in Eunápolis, have still not been tried; and Paulo Sérgio Mendes Lima, the only one so far convicted of the crime, has been at large since 2008; and
WHEREAS both Paulo Ségio Mendes Lima, convicted of the murder of radio reporter Ronaldo Santana de Araújo, andElizeu Felício de Souza, o Zeu,convicted of the murder of journalist Tim Lopes in June, 2002, took advantage of the benefit of progression from a closed regime to a semi-open one to flee; those accused of the murder of radio reporter Samuel Román in Coronel Sapucaia, Mato Grosso do Sul on April 20,2004, and of journalist Aristeu Guida da Silva, killed on May 12, 1995 in São Fidélis, Rio de Janeiro are also at large; and
WHEREAS the three people accused of planning the murder of radio reporter Jorge Vieira da Costa, killed in March, 2001 in Timon, Maranhão, were able to put a hold on the case in the courts; and
WHEREAS the Prosecutors Office decided in May of this year to drop the police investigation into the death of Nivanildo Barbosa Lima, found dead at the Paulo Afonso dam on July 22, 1995; in justifying the move, prosecutor Milane Tavares alleges that, in spite of the existence of evidence, it isinsufficient; and during the process of study of the case there was negligence, delay, and rescheduling that hampered the progress of the investigation; and
WHEREAS the murderers of reporter LuizOtávioMonteiro in Manaus on December 29, 1988 remain unpunished; also unpunished are those who killed Edgar Lopes de Faria on October 29, 1997 in Campo Grande, MatoGrosso; José Carlos Mesquita on March 10, 1998 in OuroPreto do Oeste, Rondônia; and Mário Coelho de Almeida Filho, on August 16, 1-2001 in Magé, Rio de Janeiro; and
WHEREAS the disappearance of journalist Ivan Rocha on April 22, 1991 in the city of Texeira de Freitas, Bahia, remains unexplained; and
WHEREAS Romualdo Eustáquio da Luz Faria, accused of the murder of social columnist Maria Nilce Magalhães on July 5, 1989 in Vitória, Espírito Santo, has still not been examined by an expert, although he alleges mental insanity; and another person accused of the crime, police clerk Charles Roberto Lisboa, who also had alleged mental insanity but who has been found to be sane, and is awaiting his call to trial; and
WHEREAS João Arcanjo Ribeiro, accused of heading organized crime in the state of Mato Grosso and of having ordered the killing on September 30, 2002 of businessman Domingos Sávio Brandão de Lima, owner of the newspaper Folha do Estado and radio station Cidade de Cuiabá FM, has made an appeal and has still not been judged; and
WHEREAS the Homicide Department of the police of Niterói/São Gonçalo has not yet completed its final report on the murder of Reinaldo Coutinho da Silva on August 29, 1995 in São Gonçalo, Rio de Janeiro; and
WHEREAS Nilson Osterne Maia and Otaviano de Lima, accused of the murder of radio reporter NicanorLinhares Batista on June 30, 2003 was given a change in venue of their trial from Limoeiro do Norte to Fortaleza, Ceará, but the date of the trial has still not been set; the case against Appeals Judge José Maria Lucena, accused of being one of the planners of the crime, is in the hands of Justice Hamilton Carvalhido to decide whether to accept the accusation; the case against Lucenas wife, former mayor Maria Arivan de Holanda Lucena, continues in the courts of Limoeiro do Norte, now in the stage of hearing witnesses; and
WHEREAS police officer Valnei Bertoni and businessman Carlos Alberto da Costa, accused of the murder of journalist Luiz Carlos Barbon Filhoon May 5, 2007 in Porto Ferreira, filed an appeal against a decision that would take them before a jury of the people, and they still have not been tried; and
WHEREAS the police inquiry into the murder of radio reporter Jorge Lourenço dos Santos, killed on July 11, 2004 in Santana do Ipanema, Alagoas, was sent to the Court of Justice in the capital, since one of the defendants is a public agent, and is now in the evidence-gathering stage; and
WHEREAS Proposal to Amend the Constitution No. 15 of 2010, which establishes the competence of federal judges to handle crimes against journalists in the exercise of their profession, is in the Constitutional Committee of the Federal Senate awaiting the opinion of the appointed commentator, Antonio Carlos Valadares; and
WHEREAS Senate bill No. 167 of 2010, which would change the Penal Code to assure priority of judgment in cases related to the murder of journalists due to their professional activity was assigned to commentator Renato Casagrande of the Committee on the Constitution and Justice of the Federal Senate, and the commentator has not yet issued his opinion; and
WHEREAS both Constitutional Amendment No. 15 and Bill no. 167 would facilitate the handling of cases of journalists murdered in the course of their profession and avoid impunity; and
WHEREAS in most of the crimes, those who order them committed remain unpunished because investigations are content to identify only the shooters and intermediaries; and
WHEREAS there are cases in which the accused remain at large; there is no efficient system to locate these fugitives, and the land borders of the country facilitate their flight; and
WHEREAS Principle 4 of the Declaration of Chapultapec states that Freedom of expression and of the press are severely limited by murder, terrorism, kidnapping, intimidation, the unjust imprisonment of journalists, the destruction of facilities, violence of any kind and impunity for perpetrators. Such acts must be investigated promptly and punished harshly.
THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE IAPA RESOLVES
to call upon the government of Bahia state to lend all necessary support to the reopening of the case in the murder of journalist Manoel Leal de Oliveira in January, 1998, for identification and punishment of the person who ordered the crime committed, in accordance with a friendly agreement signed with the Interamerican Commission on Human Rights;
to ask that all measures be taken to elucidate the murder of ReinaldoCoutinho da Silva in Rio de Janeiro, preventing this case from being dropped and remaining unpunished;
to seek support to guarantee that Proposal to Amend the Constitution No. 15 of 2010 and Senate Bill no. 167 of 2010, be passed in order to assure that crimes committed against journalists in the course of their professional work be given priority in coming to trial, and that cases be investigated and tried at the federal level, especially those cases in which local government authorities may be compromised or subject to pressures;
to demand that investigations and court cases not be limited simply to investigating the actual perpetrators of a crime, but also those behind the crime, and that these be punished in an exemplary manner;
to urge the adoption of an efficient system to locate and capture fugitives, interconnecting and intensifying control of the land borders of the country;
to call for improvement of witness protection programs and those aimed at defenders of human rights;
to request that changes be made in legislation to adopt rigorous criteria in the application of the benefit of progression from a closed regime to a semi-open one, since this benefit makes it possible for criminals to flee;
to request a careful evaluation of cases of journalists murdered in the course of their professional activities in the 1990s and to take immediate and urgent measures in order to prevent the dropping and impunity that appear to be more and more common in some of these cases.
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