Ap and Afp

La Jornada Newspaper
Sunday, December 8, 2024, p. 19

Rio de Janeiro., A judge yesterday handed down extensive sentences to three former agents of Brazil’s federal highway police for the death, in 2022, of a black man who died of asphyxiation inside the smoke-filled trunk of a pickup truck.

At the end of a 12-day trial, the jury found the individuals guilty of torturing and killing the individual who suffered from schizophrenia. Judge Rafael Soares sentenced Paulo Rodolpho Lima Nascimento to 28 years in prison for homicide, according to a statement from Brazil’s fifth federal regional court.

Soares also sentenced the other police officers, William de Barros Noia and Kleber Nascimento Freitas, to more than 23 years in prison each for torture that resulted in death.

The police justified at the time that the man showed aggressive behavior and was actively resisting to the elements who ordered him to stop his march, while stating that the agents immobilized him and then used instruments of minor offensive potential to contain it.

In August 2023, an internal disciplinary process recommended that the three officers be dismissed, a decision later confirmed by the Ministry of Justice.

The victim’s sister, Laura Santos, stated that she was satisfied with the ruling because It was a satisfactory result, although we are not happy with anyone’s misfortune. Calm, but does not bring happinesshe declared to the G1 news portal.

Images of the events sparked outrage throughout the country, as well as protests in Umbauba, in the northeastern state of Sergipe, against police abuses.

Local news media reported that the victim tried to explain that he was taking medication for psychiatric disorders.

Last Tuesday, images of a military security agent in Sao Paulo throwing a man from a bridge into a river sparked public outrage.