Amnesty International
On
1 February, a Brazilian criminal court sentenced 12 military police
officers of the Police Pacification Unit (Unidade de Polícia
Pacificadora, UPP) of Rocinha, Rio de Janeiro, for the crimes of torture
followed by death, procedural fraud and occultation of a corpse in the
case of the enforced disappearance of Amarildo de Souza.
The
investigations, now confirmed by the Justice, revealed that the torture
occurred behind the UPP’s headquarters in Rocinha, a favela in the
southern part of Rio de Janeiro. The public prosecutor accused
twenty-five military police officers, and 12 (10 men and two women) were
found guilty. The penalties imposed varied from nine to 13 years’
imprisonment, the highest one handed down to Rocinha’s UPP Commander.
The Sub-Commander was sentenced to 10 years and seven months in prison
for planning the crime with the Commander. All of those sentenced will
be expelled from the Military Police. In the verdict, the judge stated
that the military police officers acted with cowardice, illegality,
misuse of purpose and abuse of power.
