Eight days away from leaving office, the still president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, has launched his last Christmas pardon, which, as in previous years, has taken pity on police and military officers convicted of various crimes, thus contravening the Ministry of Justice, among them those responsible for the Carandiru massacre, in which 111 prisoners died after an operation by the Military Police.
Bolsonaro’s decision is contrary to the suggestions of the National Council of Criminal and Penitentiary Policy (CNPCP) and could be unconstitutional, since the pardon directly benefits Military Police officers for this specific case, when the presidential pardon has to be collective and not specific.
The so-called Carandiru Massacre took place on October 2, 1992 during the intervention of the Military Police in a prison in Sao Paulo to stop a riot. The operation resulted in the death of 111 prisoners. In 2002 the prison was closed and years later demolished to build a park.
This year’s presidential pardon includes those convicted of crimes that occurred more than 30 years ago, even if they were not ultimately convicted. The agents who have been singled out for that intervention in the Sao Paulo prison, therefore, meet the requirements.
The judicial process against them lasted for decades and it was not until ten years ago that Justice condemned 74 of those police officers for the death of 77 prisoners. The sentences against them ranged from 48 to 624 years in prison, however, none of them served the sentence, since Brazilian law prevents them from serving more than 40 years in prison for the same crime.
The defense argues that the deaths occurred when the agents were defending themselves from stabbing attacks by the prisoners. However, according to prosecutors, they committed extrajudicial executions once the rioters had surrendered, as indicated by the autopsies of most of the dead, who were shot in the head.
Of the condemned agents, five have already died – one of them murdered – and another 69 are still alive. More than 30 years later no one went to prison, thanks in part to the maneuvering of the defense attorneys who appealed each of the convictions.
The one who did celebrate the decision was the congressman and third of Bolsonaro’s offspring, Eduardo, who wrote on Twitter that, with the grace granted by his father, justice has been done for men who «went where no mother would allow her children to go» to fulfill «their mission» against «some of the most dangerous people in the country».
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
