Over
the next few days, the court case against the 23 political activists
from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, will enter the final phase of the
lower-court ruling, where we await the sentencing by Judge Flávio
Itabaiana.
It
is worth remembering that the police inquiry, which set in motion the
identification and imprisonment of the 23 accused, was made to
investigate their affiliations to political parties, with a clear air
of political persecution. The propensity of institutions to persecute
“left” groups becomes even more apparent when the accusation
attempts to qualify the collectives and organizations as forming a
supposed “gang” or “criminal organization”, spanning a vast
spectrum of activist groups from “communists” to “anarchists”.
There is no description in the inquiry as to whether these members
participated in a stable or permanent manner. The case cannot
maintain its accusation of the formation of a criminal organization,
as no permanent links between the accused have been established,
between people who “don't even know each other”.
In
a significant coincidence, all the targets of the investigation,
including the accused, are active in a political field situated on
the “left” - spanning the many different groups that used the
protests of June 2013 to question the status quo, be they related to
the Brazilian social maladies and political economies of the
government, or simply criticizing the foundations of the capitalist
system.
It
should be emphasized that the question of violence in protests is
clearly a response to the way in which peaceful protests were treated
with extreme and brutal repression by Military Police forces. The
violence towards teachers during protests in June 2013 is
illustrative of the way in which police forces have responded to
protests, a response which has unfortunately been repeated until
today with similar violence across the country, north and south.
The
groups existed “originally” as legitimate and autonomous
political organizations, and were designated “criminal
organizations” at the exact moment in which criminalization became
the primary strategy for containment and repression of the protests.
The accusations are not based on concrete facts, but rather on the
political and electoral necessity of curbing acts of protest.
It
happens that not only is protesting not a crime, but it is a
fundamental right in a democratic society. Moreover, people cannot be
arrested for crimes they have not yet committed, particularly without
sufficient evidence, given that the 6000 page inquiry is based on
false statements, illegal surveillance of phone conversations, posts
from social networking sites, and biased newspaper reports from
corporate media moguls such as Globo and Veja, who are notorious for
their criminalization of social movements. The lack of concrete
evidence for the accusations made in the inquiry is the most serious
and alarming element here, highlighting the political character of
all this persecution.
The
court case is enshrouded with arbitrary delays and judicial secrets,
which are kept from the legal representatives of the accused as well
as the primary judge who, at the time, conceded Habeas Corpus to the
23 accused. However, on the 3rd
of December 2014 the Judge issued a new order of imprisonment for
three political activists: Igor Mendes (imprisoned in Presidio of
Bangu, in the city of Rio de Janeiro), Elisa Quadros and Karlayne de
Moraes (currently wanted by the State). This decree has been ongoing
for more than five months, a result of their mere participation in a
single cultural event on the 15th
of October 2014.
In
favoring the concession of Habeas Corpus, the assistant attorney of
the Republic Dra Aurea Lustosa Pierre considers the decree
disproportional, being founded in authoritarian idealizations and
violating the judicial prerogative of liberty outlined in the 5th
article of the Constitution of the Republic.
This
has all been possible because the Legislative and Executive powers
have elaborated norms and decrees of a totally authoritarian nature,
which ignore fundamental rights, aligned to a conservative Judiciary
and Public Ministry.
We
are in a city that is host to mega-events and, with the World Cup
having come and gone, we await the 2016 Olympic Games which will be
“protected” by a truly war-like operation of repression by the
state, for which 23 political activists of left social movements
continue to be persecuted, criminalized, and possibly condemned to
prison, for questioning the status quo.
As
such, it has become necessary for all democratic organizations,
lawyers, prosecutors, artists, intellectuals, and democrats to raise
a great campaign of decriminalization, and for the immediate release
of all political prisoners, and for the end of all cases against
protestors which remain active.
We
call for people to join forces and unite in their initiatives to
guarantee a large campaign in defense of the freedom of expression
and the right to protest. #
(Translation:
Raffaela Moreira)
(*This
statement has been signed by intellectuals, professors, lawyers and
many others democrat people.)
Freedom
for all political prisoners!
Fighting is
not a crime! Fight is a right! (charge
by Latuff)
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