Ten years after the death and disappearance of Amarildo Dias de Souza, the family is closer to receiving compensation from the state of Rio de Janeiro. The criminal case, however, which calls for the conviction of the military police officers responsible, is still awaiting a decision by the Superior Court of Justice (STJ). The mason’s assistant Amarildo disappeared between the 13th and 14th of July 2013, after being detained by military police and taken from the door of his home in Favela da Rocinha, south of Rio de Janeiro, towards the headquarters of the Unit of Pacifying Police (UPP) of the neighborhood. According to justice, he was tortured and killed by police and his body was never found. “We never imagined going through something like this in our lives. I wouldn’t even wish that on my worst enemy. Something like this is losing your father, who was always there for you, who was always taking care of you and your family. They disappeared with my father in a way that until today we seek an answer”, says Amarildo’s eldest son, Anderson Gomes Dias. He says that the family has been waiting for ten years for an effective response from the state and the punishment of those responsible. “The feeling is that poor people don’t have a voice”, he opines. “Until today, for us, the state has not given any response. We want justice. As long as we don’t find my father, my father’s remains and the state is officially blamed for what it did to my family, we won’t shut up”, he says. Amarildo’s widow, Elizabete Gomes da Silva, shares the suffering of not being able to bury her husband. She says the last few years have been very difficult. “A lot has changed, we no longer have the life we had when he was alive. He was the pillar of the house. He just got worse, not better at all,” she complains. For her, the wait for justice “is a very big embarrassment for the family”. Compensation After ten years, according to the family’s lawyer, João Tancredo, the family is closer to compensation. After a long procedure that reached the last instance, the Superior Court of Justice (STJ), in Brasília, decided that the State of Rio de Janeiro must pay compensation for moral damages of R$ 500,000 to the partner and each of the children. do Amarildo, in addition to a pension until the children reach 25 years of age. Amarildo’s brothers should receive R$ 100 thousand. On Tuesday (11), the Court of Justice of the State of Rio de Janeiro (TJRJ) published an order asking the State of Rio to be summoned to comply with the decision. Sought by Agência Brasil, the Attorney General of the State of Rio de Janeiro (PGE) said that it had not yet been subpoenaed until this Thursday (13th): “The State awaits the subpoena of Justice determining the payment of compensation”, he informed. “Contrary to what they say, that ‘Justice is slow, but it doesn’t fail’, I believe that Justice that takes too long actually fails”, says Tancredo. “This delayed Justice is a very perverse Justice with this type of case. It’s very perverse because, in addition to the damage caused by the disappearance, you don’t compensate in the right time and when you do, what is the reasonable amount for a case like this? It has no reasonable value.” According to Tancredo, another civil action is being processed in the STJ with a similar request for compensation for two other brothers of Amarildo. In addition to this action, the STJ is also processing a criminal action against the police officers responsible for the crime. In all, 25 officers were prosecuted. One of them died before the decision was reached, and 12 were convicted of kidnapping, torture, death and hiding Amarildo’s corpse. The decision that decreed the arrest of the police officers also determined that they lost their public function. Ten convicted military police officers were excluded from the corporation. Nobody was arrested. The police appealed the decision. Disappearances in Rio According to the non-governmental organization (NGO) Rio de Paz, the state of Rio de Janeiro records five thousand disappearances a year. “Murder followed by hiding a corpse is something that is part of everyday life in the state of Rio,” says Rio de Paz founder Antonio Carlos Costa. “We are facing a scandal, government agents kill a Brazilian citizen, hide his body and we live in a city full of clandestine cemeteries. It is barbarism,” he adds. According to Costa, it is necessary not only for the state to position itself in relation to specific cases, but also for effective changes in the security policy. “What has changed in the state’s public security policy? Anything. The cause must be the fact that whoever dies is poor,” he observes. When contacted, the Secretary of State for the Military Police informed, through its press office, that the General Internal Affairs of the Corporation “strictly complied with all the steps provided for by law in relation to this episode”. According to the Secretariat, procedures were initiated to investigate the conduct of the military police officers on duty on July 14, 2013, at the UPP in Rocinha. “At the end of the process, in which everyone had the broad right of defense, six members of that team were excluded from the Military Police. In relation to the two officers, the final decision is currently under the scope of the Court of Justice”, says the secretariat in a note. *With information from TV Brasil
Agência Brasil
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