RIO DE JANEIRO, Oct 22 (Reuters) – Prosecutors in Rio de
Janeiro on Tuesday charged an additional 15 state police
officers in the torture and death of a bricklayer who
disappeared from a city slum in July.
Ten officers were also charged earlier this month in the
case which prosecutors say involved abduction, torture, slaying
and coverup by police, who said they believed the 42-year-old
construction worker, Amarildo Dias de Souza, had information
about drugs and weapons in the Rio slum.
The case has brought renewed scrutiny of human rights abuses
by Rio police even as they try to clean up neighborhoods once
dominated by criminal gangs.
Just as Rio prepares to host games in next year’s World Cup
soccer tournament and the 2016 Olympics, the charges illustrate
how far officials have yet to go in reforming local police.
During recent decades of soaring crime and dominance by drug
gangs across giant swaths of Rio, Brazil’s second biggest city,
some police adopted vigilante-style tactics to pursue
extrajudicial cleanups. Death squads targeted criminals, and
corrupt officers waged violent turf wars.
Local authorities in recent years have successfully pushed
drug gangs out of some favelas, as the slums are known,
especially those in wealthier parts of the city and near venues
for the World Cup and Olympics. But favela residents and human
rights activists say police still mete out summary justice.
De Souza’s body is still missing after he vanished from
Rocinha, a massive hillside favela near Rio’s wealthy shore.
Among the accused is the former commander of the police
force there, who was fired from his post after the abduction and
is in custody, facing charges including torture and the hiding
of a corpse. Prosecutors say the former commander ordered
subordinates to detain and question de Souza and, after the
torture killed him, hide his body.
After voice analyses and interviews with police who were
ordered to guard a small shed where the abuses occurred,
investigators identified four officers who prosecutors say
carried out the torture, including simulated drowning, electric
shocks and asphyxiation with a plastic bag.
If convicted, the accused face prison sentences of up to 33
years.
(Reporting by Paulo Prada; Editing by Mohammad Zargham)
