Old State of Brazil Initiates Investigations into Crimes Against Peasants Days After People’s Court
Featured image: Renato Nathan, teacher and leader murdered in Nova Mamoré. Source: AND
The Federal Police and the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office of the old State in Brazil launched a joint operation this week in Rondônia “to combat impunity in the countryside.”, in relation to the murders of rural leaders that occurred between 2009 and 2016. This comes days after a People’s Court held three colonels of the Military Police responsible for using high-powered weapons in the murder of peasants in their encampments.
The current operation is the result of a decision by the Superior Court of Justice (STJ), which mandated the “federalization” of investigations into crimes against rural workers, and “seeks to gather decisive evidence about the murder of eight rural workers and peasant leaders, murdered in a context of agrarian warfare and environmental crimes in the interior of the State.”
Lawyer Roniery Rodrigues Machado, one of the organizers of the People’s Court, states that “It was ABRAPO’s [Brazilian Association of People’s Lawyers] fight to federalize the case of Professor Renato Nathan, which led to the cases of nine other colleagues; it’s been years of struggle; it’s also not surprising that these events occurred after our actions.”
Some of the cases are:
You can read the full article by A Nova Democracia (AND) here:
We have reported recently on a tribute made by MFP to Edilene, you can read more below:
