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New Court Ruling Acquits Police Agents of Carandiru Massacre

09/28/2016 - 11h59

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FROM SÃO PAULO

A judge from Sao Paulo has reversed the verdicts that condemned 74 military police agents to long-term prison sentences for the massacre in Carandiru.

On October 2 1992, 111 prisoners from the former Detention Unit were killed as police invaded to allegedly put a stop to riots.

During the trials, which took place between 2001 and 2014, the jury ruled the police agents guilty. Jail time varied from 48 to 624 years.

However, this Tuesday (27) in the Fourth Chamber of Criminal Courts in Sao Paulo, the verdicts were overturned. Of three judges, two voted to annul the rulings and one for complete acquittal of the accused.

"There was no massacre, just a respect for hierarchies and a legitimate defence. Legal duty was strictly carried out. Now I'm not denying that, somewhere among these people, there could have been a murderer."

"We judges cannot allow ourselves to be swayed by the press, or by human rights advocates. I know my conscience and I am the judge. The person who dictates my own conscience is me," one of the judges said.

The courts will meet again in another session, with another two judges, to decide whether the case is annulled (another jury will have to meet) or acquitted.

Defense attorneys claim there is a lack of concrete evidence to support the case. They argue that the whole trial was based on the condemnation and acquittal of the Colonel Ubiratan Guimarães.

Ubiratan was condemned in 2001 to 632 years in prison for 105 of the 111 deaths. Five years later, the jury absolved him of his crimes, accepting the defence's argument that he was simply carrying out his duty as a policeman.

Ubiratan died in 2006, without spending a single day behind bars. The prosecution will defer to the Supreme Federal Court to confirm the result of the trials.

Translated by GILLIAN SOPHIE HARRIS

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