Public Prosecutor’s Office appoints new jury at Kiss nightclub for November 20

This Tuesday afternoon (5), after the Sixth Panel of the Superior Court of Justice (STJ) upheld the annulment of the judgment of the defendants in the Kiss nightclub case, the Rio Grande do Sul Public Ministry (MPRS) defined that a new jury will take place on November 20th.

The fire at the Kiss nightclub, in the city of Santa Maria (RS), happened on January 27, 2013 and left 242 dead and 636 injured.

“As soon as there was a decision by the Superior Court of Justice upholding the annulment, there was a concern by the Public Prosecutor’s Office that the judgment should take place as soon as possible. We are in a process that has been going on for ten years and we need an answer so that everyone can rest and so that we can finally say that society is judging and deciding and taking a course for this process”, said prosecutor Lúcia Helena Callegari .

In December 2021, former partners of the nightclub Elissandro Callegaro Spohr and Mauro Londero Hoffmann were sentenced, respectively, to 22 years and six months in prison and 19 years and six months in prison. In addition to them, musician Marcelo de Jesus dos Santos and music producer Luciano Bonilha were sentenced to 18 years in prison each.

The conviction of the four accused was suspended in August last year, after the first Criminal Chamber of the Court of Justice of Rio Grande do Sul (TJRS) accepted an appeal presented by the defense of the defendants.

The lawyers alleged procedural nullities that occurred during a session of the Jury Court of Porto Alegre. After the decision of the TJRS, the four accused began to respond to the process in freedom.

In accepting the defense demand of the accused, the Minister of the TJRS, Jayme Weingartner Neto, highlighted that “the acts performed were atypical; the rules in force were not complied with; were not complied with in the drawing of an excessive number of jurors, and were not complied with in carrying out three draws, the last one flagrantly outside the legal deadline (11/24/2021), less than ten working days before the date of the installation of the session (1st/ 12/2021)”.

On June 13, the STJ began the trial of the special appeal filed by the MPRS against the TJRS decision, but decided against the Public Ministry’s demand.

In May of this year, before the start of the trial at the STJ, the Attorney General’s Office (PGR) issued a favorable opinion on compliance with the convictions.