Brazil prison ‘massacre’ trial begins

Agencies/Rio de Janeiro

Twenty-six Brazilian military police officers, some of them still on active duty, are facing murder charges in the deaths of 15 inmates.

The Sao Paulo court’s proceedings are expected to last as long as two weeks, with trials of other groups of officers to follow in the coming months.

In total, 79 officers are to be tried in connection with the massacre, which took place on October 2, 1992, following hours of rioting at the overcrowded facility.

Many critics see what is known as the “Carandiru massacre” as a symbol of police brutality and impunity in Brazil.

Many of the officers involved in the killings, which saw survivors forced to help pile the bodies of their fellow inmates, were promoted, and more than two decades on, only a single officer had been tried in connection with the massacre.

In 2001, Colonel Ubiratan Guimaraes, was sentenced to 632 years in prison for using excessive force when he ordered police to quell the rebellion.

But a Sao Paulo state appeals court overturned the conviction in February 2006 based on arguments that Guimaraes was only following orders.

Guimaraes was found dead in his Sao Paulo apartment seven months later with a gunshot wound to the chest.

His girlfriend was tried on homicide charges last year and acquitted.