8/1 prisoner wrote diary on toilet paper in prison

Arrested on January 8 while praying in the entrance hall of the Palácio do Planalto, elderly caregiver Nilma Lacerda Alves remained in the Federal District Women’s Penitentiary, known as Colmeia, for seven months. There, the Bahian woman 44 years ago he used toilet paper rolls to write a diary with remarkable events he experienced in prison. “It’s very hard for me,” he said in an interview with Gazeta do Povo, crying a lot. “Reading what I wrote makes me go through it all again, because I know I didn’t do anything to be there.”

In her diary, Nilma cites situations of intimidation she experienced, impactful phrases she heard and dates on which her colleagues — most of whom were elderly — felt ill. “A friend convulsed several times and they didn’t give her help,” she revealed, while reading an excerpt from the diary during the interview.

“Another woman who had breast cancer was off her medication and started to have lymphedema. [obstrução na circulação linfática], and we just passed water”, he continued. “I fell in the bathroom myself on March 23 and tore my hand because of the broken tiles.”

In the reports, she also highlights the “confer” times, in which prison officers asked, without prior notice, that all the women in the ward line up several times a day. “We never knew the right time and they said that ‘if we didn’t arrive soon, we would be put together with the other prisoners, with the masses’”, she says, saying that colleagues would even pee their pants, they were so scared. .

In fact, “on May 8th I was very sleepy because we couldn’t sleep well there, and I crossed my arms in front of me. [em vez de colocar as mãos para trás], without realizing it”, reports Nilma, reading her notes from that date. “The police officer told me: ‘next time, you will be punished, inmate!’”

In her diary, Nilma also cites details about the food, which was often “inedible” due to spoiled food that was served and with animals in it. She also writes about the difficulties that the 164 inmates of the wing faced in the first weeks of imprisonment with only one toilet and one sink available.

Furthermore, one of the papers describes the visit that she and the other prisoners received from the Minister of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), Alexandre de Moraes, and Minister Rosa Weber. “It was on March 6th, when they told us that ‘those who had done nothing would not pay anything, those who had done little would pay little and those who had done a lot would pay a lot’”, she recalls. “They came with many police officers holding large-caliber weapons, and unrest took over the entire wing, we became desperate.”

The intimidation was so great that she says she spent three days without sleeping after the visit. “That really affected us.”

Missing my daughter and only granddaughter, who turned one year old away from her grandmother

In addition to the difficulties and humiliations, Nilma also wrote about the longing she felt for her only daughter and granddaughter, whom she had last seen when she was just six months old. The “lawyer says that my girl has already started to walk, the longing is starting to hurt, and I cry”, he writes in the April 10 report. And “Bruna is strong, taking care of everything. Thank you, Lord, for my daughter.”

On another page, dated May 2, the elderly caregiver describes how she was looking forward to the first video call she would have with the young woman, after four months of no contact. “But they didn’t tell my daughter and, as she works as a nurse, she wasn’t able to attend,” she lamented, saying that eight days later she was able to meet her again in person on the young woman’s first visit to the prison.

“What a feeling, what a good thing, Lord”, he wrote in the notes. “I wanted so much to go home with her”, he continued in small print, necessary to save paper.

Her notes continue and, at various times, Nilma writes about biblical passages, moments of prayer and requests she made to God, crying out to get out of there. “Sir, we are exhausted. Lord, have mercy,” she wrote.

Provisional freedom and many traumas

Nilma was granted provisional freedom with an electronic ankle bracelet in August and, since then, has been receiving support from a psychologist and psychiatrist, paid for by family members.

According to her defense lawyer, Hélio Junior, she has been a public servant for 20 years and “has never suffered any administrative process or disciplinary liability, nor has she faced criminal proceedings”. Resident in the municipality of Barreiras (BA), she even tried to discourage the vandals who damaged the Planalto on January 8th.

Furthermore, in a report published by Gazeta do Povo last weekend, Nilma reports that she tried to leave the palace three times, but was “trapped” by tear gas bombs and rubber bullets.

Conviction without evidence and new trial

In a virtual trial at the STF, which began on September 26, Alexandre de Moraes voted to sentence Nilma to 14 years in closed prison. There is no evidence in the file that the community agent has committed any of the crimes highlighted by the minister: damage to public property, participation in an armed criminal association or attempt to violently abolish the Democratic Rule of Law.

However, Minister André Mendonça asked for his case to be highlighted, and a new trial will be scheduled in person soon. Given the hope of being heard, Nilma asks that conduct be individualized and that the truth prevail. “I’ve already paid a lot for things I didn’t do. So, I ask you to judge me by my actions.”

Gazeta do Povo contacted the Ministry of Human Rights (MDHC) regarding the situations described by the interviewee and is awaiting feedback.