Miami (February 6, 2014)—The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today described as positive the conviction of two of the murderers of journalist Décio Sá in Brazil and insisted on the urgent need to ensure the same justice in other, unsolved crimes. In another development, the organization called on the authorities of Mexico to conduct a prompt investigation into the disappearance of a journalist in Veracruz.
Jhonathan Silva, the confessed killer, and Marcos Bruno Silva, the driver of the motorcycle on which the two were traveling when they shot Sá on April 23, 2012, were sentenced to a prison term of 25 years and 3 months; and 18 years and three months, respectively.
Judge Osmar Gomes dos Santos pronounced sentence on February 5 following the two day trial in São Luís, capital of the northeastern Brazilian state of Maranhão.
The chairman of the IAPA’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, Claudio Paolillo, declared, “The holding of the trial and the convictions represent a positive step into breaking the cycle of impunity in the country.”
Paolillo, editor of the Montevideo, Uruguay, weekly Búsqueda, added that the IAPA hopes other cases are solved and an effort is made for none of them to be forgotten.
The trial concluded that Sá, a reporter with the newspaper O Estado de Maranhão and author of the de Décia blog, was killed in reprisal for his reports on the murder of businessman Fábio Brazil (nicknamed Júnior Foca), who was being investigated for his alleged links to a criminal gang accused of the offense of usury and diverting public funds in more than 40 municipalities in Maranhão state. Other nine persons continue to face charges in connection with the murder.
The IAPA has been calling for justice in the murders of Mario Randolfo Marques Lopes, committed in 2012, Francisco Gomes de Medeiros (2010), Wanderley dos Reis (2010), Samuel Román (2004), Nicanor Linhares Batista (2003), Domingos Sávio Brandão de Lima Júnior (2002), Mário Coelho de Almeida Filho (2001), José Carlos Mesquita (1998), Edgar Lopes de Faria (1997), Ronaldo Santana de Araújo (1997), Reinaldo Coutinho da Silva (1995), Nivanildo Barbosa Lima (1995), Ivan Rocha (1991) and Luiz Otávio Monteiro (1988).
The organization has also called for the identification and punishment of the masterminds of the January 14, 1998 murder of Manoel Leal de Oliveira, in compliance with an agreement signed between the IAPA and the government of Brazil, with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) acting as intermediary, and it has asked the Brazilian Congress to move ahead in discussion of legislative bills and amendments to the Constitution that envision making crimes committed against journalists while carrying out their role federal offenses.
Mexico
Reporter Gregorio Jiménez de la Cruz, who covers the police beat for the newspapers Notisur and Liberal del Sur in Veracruz state, was kidnapped on February 5 by an armed group that intercepted him in the morning as he was returning home in the city of Coatzacoalcos after leaving his children at school.
In recent days he had been denouncing an increase in kidnappings in the city, said Notisur news editor Syda Chiñas.
Paolillo urged the Mexican authorities “to act speedily to determine the journalist’s whereabouts.”
Due to the high incidence of violence against members of the press Mexico continues to be among the most dangerous countries for working as a journalist.
The IAPA is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the defense and promotion of freedom of the press and of expression in the Americas. It is made up of more than 1,300 print publications from throughout the Western Hemisphere and is based in Miami, Florida. For more information please go to http://www.sipiapa.org.
