OAS » IACHR » Special Rapporteurship for Freedom of Expression » Brazil

Freedom of Expression

Brazil

           Assassinations

 

            38.       Nicanor Linhares Batista was assassinated at approximately 8:00 p.m. on June 30, 2003, while taping his daily program Encontro Político.  Linhares Batista, 42 years old, was the owner and manager of Rádio Vale do Jaguaribe, in the city of Limoeiro do Norte.  According to the information received, the assassins suddenly entered the studio, fired several shots at point-blank range, and fled on a motorcycle.  Linhares was taken to the Public Hospital of Limoeiro do Norte, but was declared dead on arrival.[1]  According to the information received, Linhares Batista was known as a controversial journalist who was accustomed to confronting the local public administration and had previously been harassed for this reason.  The Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression issued a press release condemning his assassination.[2]

 

            39.       The Police investigation led to the detention, in August, of five persons.  Among them was an Army sergeant, Edesio de Almeida, suspected of being an intermediary in the murder.  On October 10, 2003, Francisco Lindenor de Jesus Morua Juniro was detained and confessed to having been paid for killing Linhares.  On October 20, 2003, the Attorney General's Office filed an accusation against José María Lucena, judge of the Federal Regional Tribunal of the fifth region, and his wife, Arivan Lucena, mayor of Limoeiro do Norte, suspected of being the intellectual authors of the murder.  At this writing, three other suspects were reportedly fugitives from justice.[3]

 

            40.       On July 23, 2003, Brazilian photojournalist Luiz Antônio da Costa, who worked for the magazine Epoca, owned by Editora Globo S.A., was assassinated by gunfire in São Bernardo do Campo, in the state of São Paulo, when taking photographs of a land invasion by some 7,000 persons of a lot owned by an auto company.  According to the information received, some leaders of the families who entered the lot were speaking with the journalists when approximately three persons arrived and shot at da Costa.  The police detained three suspects on July 30.  One of them confessed to having killed the photographer accidentally when he was aiming at his camera.  According to the suspect’s confession, the three persons suspected that da Costa had taken photographs during a robbery they had just committed.[4]

 

            Judicial actions

 

            41.       In August, 2003, Alvanir Ferreira Avelino, publisher of the newspaper Dois Estados, of the city of Miracema, was detained in the city of Campos, state of Rio de Janeiro.  He was convicted and sentenced to 10 months and 15 days imprisonment for the crimes of defamation and slander.  The decision was affirmed on July 3, 2001, by the Second Chamber for Criminal Matters of the State of Rio de Janeiro.  The accusation was based on two articles written in 1998 and 1999, in which the journalist called into question a judge’s decisions.[5]

 

            Investigations

 

            42.       On September 15, 2003, a former member of the military police from the state of Mato Grosso, in central Brazil, confessed to having assassinated Domingos Sávio Brandão, owner of the newspaper Folha do Estado.  In addition, he noted that a former member of the civilian police and entrepreneur of clandestine gambling operations had been the mastermind.  Brandão was assassinated on September 30, 2002, in the city of Cuiabá.  During the two years prior to the incident, Brandão’s daily newspaper had published reports on organized crime in Mato Grosso.[6]

 

            43.       On September 27, 2003, the trial court (Tribunal do Júri) of Itabuna, in the state of Bahia, sentenced civilian police officer Mozart de Costa Brasil to 18 years imprisonment for having assassinated the owner and director of the weekly A Região, Manoel Leal de Oliveira, on January 14, 1998.[7]  Thomaz Iraci Guedes, accused of participating in the case, was acquitted on September 25.  At the time this report was being finalized, a third accused was still a fugitive.

 

            Access to information

 

            44.       In July 2003, a federal judge in Brasília ordered the Brazilian Army to open its archives and disseminate information on a guerrilla group that operated in the Amazon region during the military regime (1964-1985).  The order led to a request submitted by the family members of 22 guerrillas considered to have disappeared.  It was determined that the applicants have the right to know where their family members were buried and to receive the respective death certificates.[8]

1889 F St. N.W. Washington, DC, U.S.A. 20006 / E-mail: [email protected] / Phone: (202) 370-9000 / Fax: (202) 458-3650