STJ suspends judgment on compensation from Ustra to victim’s family

The Superior Court of Justice (STJ) suspended, this Tuesday (8), the judgment that deals with the possibility of the daughters of Colonel Carlos Alberto Brilhante Ustra compensating relatives of a dead journalist, after torture suffered during the military dictatorship.

The rapporteur for the appeal at the STJ, Minister Marco Buzzi, voted in favor of the fact that compensation for crimes under the dictatorship does not prescribe, but decided to request a review of the case file. He highlighted that the summary 647 recognizes that “indemnity actions for moral and material damages arising from acts of political persecution with violation of fundamental rights that occurred during the military regime are non-prescriptive.”

The trial was postponed after Minister Isabel Gallotti presented a divergence from the rapporteur’s vote. For her, the action could not be filed against Ustra, but against the Brazilian State.

In 2012, Ustra was ordered to pay R$50,000 to each of the plaintiffs for the excesses committed. The sentence recorded that the DOI-Codi commander participated in the torture sessions and even directed and calibrated the intensity and duration of the blows. With that, he had the guilt recognized for the suffering inflicted.

Ustra died in 2015 while awaiting appeal hearing. In 2018, the São Paulo Court of Justice understood that the possibility of claiming compensation, although not covered by the 1979 Amnesty Law, was already prescribed. The starting point considered was the enactment of the Federal Constitution of 1988.