Police Officers Involved in Carandiru Massacre Will Have a New Trial

04/12/2017 - 13h07

The São Paulo Court of Justice ruled on Tuesday (11), by 4 votes against 1, that the Military Police officers involved in the Carandiru massacre must have a new trial.

Seventy-seven police officers had given sentences ranging from 48 to 624 years in prison in five trials between 2013 and 2014 for their participation in 77 of the 111 murders of prisoners of the Casa de Detenção de São Paulo (São Paulo's Detention House) in the neighborhood of Carandiru, in November 1992.

If there is no change, new trials, still with no date set, should be organized. The first trial took almost 21 years to happen.

This Tuesday's session had only two possible outcomes: new trials would be held or the police officers would be acquitted.

In September, in response to a defense appeal, two appellate judges decided to annul the trials because they understood that the jury's decision was contrary to the evidence. According to them, there were elements for acquittal that were not taken into account.

The Public Prosecutor's Office says it does not agree with the annulment of the trials, because the jurors spent days analyzing the case and opted for one of the theses presented.

The thesis argued by the defense and followed by the judges is that it is not possible to say who shot at who on that day. So someone who did not kill anyone could be convicted of 77 deaths.

Translated by MARINA DELLA VALLE

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