21 October 2014

IMPUNITY/BRAZIL

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WHEREAS the Homicide Unit of the police of Baixada Fluminense is investigating the February 13, 2014 murder of Pedro Palma, owner of the newspaper Panorama Regional in the city of Miguel Pereira in the state of Rio de Janeiro; WHEREAS the killer(s) of Jeolino Xavier Lopes, owner of the N3 Blog, a former city councilman and radio reporter, and pre-candidate for state deputy in the 2014 elections, who was murdered on February 27, 2014 in Teixeira de Freitas in Bahia state has(have) not been identified ; WHEREAS on August 19, 2014, judge Murilo Kieling, head of the Third Criminal Court of Rio, ordered Caio Silva de Souza and Fábio Raposo Barbosa to be subject to a jury trial; they are accused of having lighted the rocket that hit and killed videographer Santiago Ilídio de Andrade during a demonstration of the people at Central do Brasil train station in Rio de Janeiro on February 6, 2014; the two are accused of triply-qualified homicide; WHEREAS the case against former mayor Arivan Lucena, accused of being the instigator of the murder of radio reporter Nicanor Linhares Batista on June 30, 2003 in Limoeiro do Norte, Ceará, is awaiting the ruling by the judge of Limoeiro do Norte; WHEREAS procedures in relation to Criminal Case no. 517 in the Superior Court of Justice to investigate the participation of federal appeals judge of the 5th Regional Federal Court, José María de Oliveira Lucena, in the murder of Nicanor Linhares Batista still continue; WHEREAS gunman Paulo Sérgio de Lima was tried and convicted of the murder of radio reporter Ronaldo Santana de Araújo on October 9, 1997 in Eunápolis, Bahia; Paulo Ernesto Ribeiro da Silva, a.k.a. Paulo Dapé, who was mayor of Eunápolis at the time of the crime, and former city employees Maria José Ferreira Souza, Waldemir Batista de Oliveira and Antônio Oliveira Santos were also accused of the crime; WHEREAS the investigation of the murder of blogger Mario Randolfo Marques Lopes and his girlfriend, Maria Aparecida Guimarães on February 9, 2012, in Barra do Piraí, Rio de Janeiro still continues; WHEREAS due to his advanced age and health problems, habeas corpus was granted to José de Alencar Miranda Carvalho so that he can respond to the case from home while on house arrest, for the accusation of ordering the murder of journalist Décio Sá on April 23, 2012, in São Luís, Maranhão; others defendants of the crime remain in custody and have appealed their conviction; on February 5, 2014 gunman Jhonathan Silva and motorcyclist Marcos Bruno Silva, who facilitated the gunman’s escape were convicted; WHEREAS on August 29, 2014 former plain-clothed policeman Lúcio Lírio Leal was sentenced to twelve years in prison in closed regime for the murder of journalist Rodrigo Neto de Faria on March 8, 2013 in the city of Ipatinga, Minas Gerais; the false policeman Alessandro Neves Alugusto, “Pitote,” was also indicted for the crime, but appealed; prosecutor Francisco Angelo Silva Assis, of the 10th Procecutor’s Office of Justice of Ipatinga, is awaiting the results of investigations by the Department of Homicides of the Eastern Region of Belo Horizonte on others possibly involved; WHEREAS Alessandro Neves Augusto, a.k.a. “Pitote,” was also indicted for the murder of photographic reporter Walgney Assis Carvalho on April 14, 2013 in the city of Coronel Fabriciano, in Minas Gerais, but he has appealed; WHEREAS police official Eleandro Granja Cavalcante da Costa, in charge of the investigation into the murder of radio reporter Valderlei Canuto Leandro on September 1, 2011 in Tabatinga, Amazonas, sent a request to the Ministry of Justice to have an interrogation done of a suspect of the crime incarcerated in Leticia, Colombia; WHEREAS businessman Lailson Lopes, known as the Fatman of the Bus Station, was sentenced on April 12, 2014 to fourteen years in prison in closed regime for the death of radio reporter Francisco Gomes de Medeiros, killed on October 18, 2010 in Caicó, state of Rio Grande do Norte; two other suspects were indicted, but they appealed the indictment; two other suspects are awaiting a decision on indictment; the only one who is incarcerated is former pastor Gilson Neudo Soares do Amaral, because he is completing a sentence for drug trafficking; WHEREAS on August 12, 2014 judge Lourival Machado da Costa, of the 2nd Criminal Court of Goiânia, decided that Marcus Vinícius Pereira Xavier, Urbano de Carvalho Malta, Djalma Gomes da Silva, Ademá Figueiredo Aguiar Filho, and Maurício Borges Sampaio must face a jury of the people for the murder of journalist, radio reporter, and sports commentator Valério Luiz, on July 5, 2012 in Goiânia, Goiás; the Minister of Justice of Brazil sent a request for extradition from Portugal of Marcus Vinícius Pereira Xavier on September 10, 2014; WHEREAS the murders of reporters Luiz Otávio Monteiro in Manaus, Amazonas (December 29, 1988), Reinaldo Coutinho da Silva (August 29, 1995 in São Gonçalo, Rio de Janeiro), Edgar Lopes de Faria (October 29, 1997) in Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul; José Carlos Mesquita (March 10, 1998) in Ouro Preto do Oeste, Rondônia remain unpunished; the murders of Wanderley dos Reis, (October 16, 2010) in Ibitinga, São Paulo, the death of journalist Nivanildo Barbosa Lima, found in the Paulo Afonso dam in Bahia on July 22, 1995, and the disappearance of Ivan Rocha on April 22, 1991, in Teixeira de Freitas, Bahia, remain unsolved. THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE IAPA RESOLVES To urge the Government of Brazil to guarantee the rights of communication professionals to carry out their functions without risks, as suggested by the Working Group on Communication under the Secretariat of Human Rights of the President of the Republic; To request the Brazilian Congress the urgent approval of a law for the federalization of crimes committed against journalists in the exercise of their profession; To urge the Brazilian Government to take without any further delay the measures as required to comply with the agreement signed with the Inter American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) that contemplates reopening of investigations in order to identify and punish the instigators of the murder of journalist Manoel Leal de Oliveira in Itabuna; To request the Inter American Commission on Human Rights to provide special attention to the murder of Mário de Almeida Coelho Filho on August 16, 2001 in Magé, in Rio de Janeiro, accepted by said Commission; To urge the Brazilian Government to locate and capture the fugitive criminals within the country and in border areas, To demand that instigators of crimes be punished, and not only the gunmen.  

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