Jury is marked almost 10 years after death of cameraman – 06/08/2023 – Power

Judge Tula Correa de Mello has scheduled the popular jury for December in the case against the two accused of killing cameraman Santiago Andrade with a rocket during a demonstration in Rio de Janeiro.

The process had practically stopped for almost three years, awaiting the search for the complete images recorded by Santiago and, mainly, the delay of the ICCE (Instituto de Criminalística Carlos Éboli) in sending an opinion on the material of the investigation.

Santiago died after being hit by a rocket in the head while covering, for TV Bandeirantes, a demonstration at Central do Brasil in February 2014. In Rio de Janeiro, the day of protests lasted from June 2013 to July 2014 , month of the World Cup final.

Fabio Raposo Barbosa and Caio Silva de Souza were indicted on charges of triple homicide –for a base reason, impossibility of defending the victim and use of an explosive– and for the autonomous crime of explosion.

The pronouncement —sending the case to the jury— was even reversed by the defense of the accused in the second instance. Lawyers argued that it was not a case of intentional crime, which is why the process should be analyzed by a magistrate, and not by jurors.

The jury was confirmed by the STJ (Superior Court of Justice) and by the STF (Federal Supreme Court). The 3rd Criminal Court scheduled the session for July 25, 2019, but the trial was suspended at the request of Caio’s defense.

The lawyers stated that Bandeirantes had not sent to the Justice the complete images recorded by the victim during its coverage. The broadcaster then forwarded a CD, but Caio’s defense said that there were only 15 seconds in the video. In July 2019, TV informed the Justice that this was the only available file recorded by Santiago that day.

After the lawyers insisted, Judge Alexandre Abrahão Teixeira stated that “it was clear as sunlight that the material intended by Caio’s defense does not exist”.

After that decision, in May 2020, the case did not advance to trial.

The prosecution and Caio’s defense presented questions to be answered by the ICCE about the images sent.

In December 2020, the Public Ministry reminded the judge that the technical police had not yet sent reports on the computers and cell phones seized from the two accused when they were arrested in 2014.

The ICCE then sent a report describing only the physical characteristics of the equipment, without any information about its content. The prosecution requested that the extracted data be analyzed. In response, the agency reported that the computer had been returned to the 17th DP, responsible for the investigation, and that it would look for the cell phones in its collection.

Over these three years, Justice made three orders to send the reports, without any response from the police. The last determination dates from April of this year, with a period of five days —already exhausted.

On June 1st, Judge Tula de Mello scheduled the jury for December 12th of this year. She is still waiting, however, for the delivery of the ICCE reports.

In a statement, the Civil Police stated that “all procedures have been carried out and are available for consultation by the Justice”.