Brazil’s Special Group for Fighting Organized Crime (Gaeco) of the state of Paraná has indicted 12 military police for murder, torture and concealment of a dead body. Responsible for fighting organized crime and inspecting the police from outside, Gaeco is formed by members of the Public Prosecution Office, the Military as well as the Civil Police, and the Finance Secretariat.
In the first case reported, five military police officers apprehended three young men on suspicion of having participated in a robbery in the city of Curitiba, and took them to a thicket nearby, where the policemen executed them. Next, they fabricated a charge of resistance to arrest, claiming the victims had attempted to shoot them.
The second report, in turn, concerns seven police who, according to Gaeco, were involved in the death of bricklayer Edenilson Rodrigues as well as the concealment of his body in May 2013, in Piraquara, when the officers, as part of an investigation into drug trafficking, went to Rodrigues’s house, subdued everyone present and attacked Rodrigues physically. Prosecutors claim the victim died from the aggression, and that the police afterwards hid his corpse.
The 12 police reported have been deprived of their positions, but remain doing internal tasks, as they await their trial.
Businessman Released
Minister Marco Aurélio, from the Federal Supreme Court (STF) granted release to Match Director Raymond Whelan. The British businessman had been accused of heading a ticket scalping scheme during the World Cup, which took place from June 12 to July 13 in Brazil. Whelan has been arrested since last month at a penitentiary complex in Rio de Janeiro.
In the minister’s view, the indictment brought against Whelan – who had FIFA’s permission to sell tickets – does not by itself justify his preventive detention. In compliance with the court ruling, the executive will be released, but should remain in Rio to answer the charges.
Apart from the Match director, the court in Rio ruled, on July 10, the arrest of ten other people which reportedly took part in the scheme. According to the Public Prosecution Office – the organization who filed the report – the suspects are facing charges of criminal conspiracy, scalping, active corruption, embezzlement and tax evasion.
