Unconvicted Inmate Warned Wife of Massacre in Roraima Prison

01/13/2017 - 14h35

"I think they are going to kill a lot of people here. Everything is strange right now. If I die, I just want to say that I love you all. Honey, everything is strange here."

That was the last text message that inmate Abel Paulino de Sousa sent to his wife on January 5. The state government says that, on that same night, criminal organization PCC killed 33 men in Penitenciária Agrícola de Monte Cristo prison, in Boa Vista, Roraima.

Sousa was buried on Sunday, January 8, on the day we would turn 25 years old. Like Sousa, five other men died without having been convicted in a court of law. They were in jail after they received arrest warrants that could still be revoked.

Folha found the investigation on Sousa's case. Without any previous sentences or jail time in Roraima, Sousa had arrived at the jail one month before his death.

He had been arrested on December 5 along with Francisco Wilami Souza de Oliveira, 39, and Marizete Almeida, 26. A teenager also was arrested on the same occasion. The police presented drugs as evidence.

Sousa told the police that he did not know that the drugs were with Oliveira - Sousa said he knew Oliveira only "from the streets." In a hearing on the day after he was arrested, Sousa said he had been arrested last January "for involvement with drugs," but was released soon after.

Sousa did not convince judge Suelen Silva Alves that he could face charges in liberty.

Investigated in the same case, Wilami Oliveira was found dead after he was strangled in his prison cell on December 19.

Sousa's family told Folha that he was not part of any criminal organization and always denied having in participation in drug trafficking.

After she received Sousa's worrying text messages, his wife tried to comfort him. "Why are you saying these things, do you think it is about you?" Sousa answered: "I am serious, darling. I think it really is about me. If I don't send you any more messages, don't send me any either, ok? I am afraid, baby."

	Marlene Bergamo/Folhapress
	Sousa was buried on Sunday, January 8, on the day we would turn 25 years old

Translated by THOMAS MUELLO

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