Ao negar a decretação da prisão dos acusado por duas vezes, o juiz contribuiu para que esses fugissem da região e, mesmo que sejam decretadas suas prisões, a prisão do grupo se torna ainda mais difícil. O mesmo juiz, decretou o sigilo das investigações sem que o delegado que presidia o inquérito ou o Ministério Público tenha solicitado. Muitos outros crimes de grande repercução já ocorreram no Estado do Pará (Gabriel Pimenta, Irmã Adelaide, massacre de Eldorado, José Dutra da Costa, Irmã Dorothy) e, em nenhum deles foi decretado segredo de Justiça. As decisões do juiz Murilo Lemos constituem mais um passo em favor da impunidade que tem sido a marca da atuação do Judiciário paraense em relação aos crimes no campo no Estado.
Desde o início das investigações as testemunhas ouvidas já indicavam a possível participação de José Rodrigues como um dos mandantes do crime, ao lado de outros fazendeiros e madeireiros do município. José Rodrigues pretendia ampliar sua criação de gado para dentro da reserva extrativista. No entanto, a área que ele dizia ter comprado já estava habitada por três famílias extrativistas. Na tentativa de expulsar as famílias, José Rodrigues levou um grupo de policiais entre civis e militares até o local, expulsou os trabalhadores, ateou fogo em uma das casas e levou um trabalhador detido até a delegacia de Nova Ipixuna. Na delegacia o trabalhador foi pressionado pelos policiais e José Rodrigues a assinar um termo de desistência do Lote. José Cláudio e Maria além de denunciarem a ação ilegal dos policiais ao INCRA apoiaram a volta dos colonos para os lotes.
Meses antes de suas mortes José Cláudio e Maria denunciaram as ameaças que estavam sofrendo e apontavam fazendeiros e madeireiros como os ameaçadores. As dezenas de depoimentos colhidos durantes as investigações apontam para a participação de outras pessoas na decisão de mandar matar José Cláudio e Maria. Razão pela qual as entidades abaixo relacionadas defendem a continuidade das investigações. As entidades esperam ainda que o inquérito presidido pela Polícia Federal, e não concluído ainda, possa avançar na identificação de outros acusados pelos crimes.
Pelo exposto exigimos: a decretação das prisões de todos os acusados e suas prisões imediatas, o fim da impunidade e a conclusão das investigações das mortes dos trabalhadores assassinados na região após a morte de José Cláudio e Maria.
Marabá, 19 de julho de 2011.
Comissão Pastoral da Terra – CPT Marabá.
FFETAGRI Regional Sudeste.
CPT have also launched the below press release, which gives a little bit more detail. I have included a rough translation below.
Pascale- Please let us know if there is anything you would like to do media wise with this information.
Hugh- I thought this might be interesting for you in light of your request for information on human rights in Brazil since Dilma took the presidency.
Thanks
Hannah
Decisions of the Judge favour the killers of the environmental activists from Nova Ipixuna.
Nearly 2 months after the murder of José Cláudio Ribeiro da Silva and Maria do Espírito Santo Silva, the civil Police of Para have concluded their investigations and accuse the landowner José Rodrigues Moreira of ordering their deaths, and the assassins Lindonjonhson Silva Rocha (brother of Jose Rodrigues) and Alberto Lopes do Nascimento of carrying out the murder. Despite being accused of the crimes, none of these men are in prison, they all remain free in an unknown location thanks to the rulings of judge Murilo Lemos Simão. In the course of the investigations, the civil police requested that they arrest and imprison the accused, however, even though this would have been favourable to the Attorney General, the judge denied the request. The police then gained more proof about the involvement of the accused in the crimes and submitted a second request to arrest the accused, and the judge denied this second request. Last week the civil police concluded their investigations and made a third request to arrest and detain the accused, and at the point where the names of the accused were released to the public, the judge had still not provided an arrest warrant.
In twice denying the arrest and detention of the accused, the judge has helped them escape from the region. The judge has now decreed an arrest warrant, but it will now be very difficult to find and arrest the group. The same judge has also decreed that the investigations are now made secret (not public), without seeking permission from the delegated leader of the inquiry or the Attorney General. Many other serious crimes have taken place in the state of Pará (the murder of Sister Dorothy, the massacre of Eldorado and other murders) and none of these cases were declared secret by the Courts. These rulings by judge Murilo Lemos signal one more step towards the impunity that has marked the actions of the judiciary in Pará in relation to rural crimes.
From the start of the investigations, all the testimonies have indicated the likely involvement of José Rodrigues as one of the possible ‘intellectual authors’ of the crime, as well as other landowners and loggers in the municipality. José Rodrigues has been trying to increase his cattle ranching within the forest reserve. However the area of land that he is said to have bought was already inhabited by 3 rural families. In trying to evict the families, Rodrigues brought military and civil police to the area, he expelled the workers, set fire to one of their homes and took one worker to the police in Nova Ipixuna. In the police station the worker was pressured by the police and Rodrigues to sign a document to confirm his withdrawal from the plot of land. José Claudio and Maria then denounced this police pressure and document as illegal to INCRA in order to gain support for the workers to return to the land.
Months before José Claudio and Maria deaths, they denounced the threats they were suffering and indicated the landowners and loggers that were threatening them. The dozens of threats that were collected during the investigation indicate the involvement of other people in the decision to kill josé Claudio and Maria. For this reason CPT and FFETAGRI Regional Sudeste are asking that the investigation continues. These organisations hope that the inquiry led by the Federal Police, and still not concluded, will lead to identifying and accusing the other people linked to the crimes.
CPT and FFETAGRI Regional Sudeste request that: an arrest warrant is issued for all the people accused and they are detained immediately, an end to impunity and a conclusion to all the murder investigations of rural workers killed in the region since the murder of José Claudio and Maria.
