Not only has the Brazilian government enacted liberty violating and over reaching “anti terrorism” laws to affect protestors, but they have been actively prosecuting and demonizing any Brazilians resisting FIFA’s 2014 World Cup. Even more disturbing is the announcement made by Sao Paulo police today that they will be seeking to pre-arrest activists before the start of the cup.
The Secretary of Public Security of São Paulo, Fernando Grella, told Reuters that police are preparing possible criminal charges against a small number of leaders of the protesters, who, he said, are conspiring to “commit acts of violence, break, vandalize, assaulting people.”
It’s unclear whether the courts will allow such a violation of liberty and law, but the perpetrators of the initiative and their lawyers seem hopeful that they will make some preventative arrests. It will be tricky for them to try to charge unorganized groups with “conspiracy” charges, so naturally the state will have to frame people and create false scenarios of conspiracy between activists.
At least three political prisoners have been stuck with trumped up charges in Rio already:
FREEDOM FOR THE 3 POLITICAL PRISONERS OF RIO DE JANEIRO.
Rafael Braga Vieira was arrested for carrying disinfectant.
on 20/06/14.
Since the heyday of popular demonstrations in Rio de Janeiro in June 2013, we are experiencing severe repression from the State, through the Military Police (PMERJ ). There were numerous cases of beatings and arbitrary arrests.
Currently we have three political prisoners in the State: , Caio Silva and Fabio Raposo . After being arrested, we know little about them. The Big Media did everything to criminalize them, in order to approve anti-terrorism laws and the banning of mask use, making it clear that the manipulation was to terrorize those who still remained in the streets. The Professor at UFRJ , Nilo Batista , even declared : ” Is there anything more immoral than a person being arrested to cause any effect on others? ”
One of the prisoners , Rafael Braga, black and homeless, was sentenced to five years imprisonment in enclosed system , for possessing one bottle of disinfectant “Pinho sol” and another of bleach, during a protest in the city center. The other two are still being tried and may take up to thirty years imprisonment because of the death of the cameraman Santiago Andrade, who was hit by a rocket.
We are deeply sorry for his death, but we are certain that it was not intentional. This is clear by the inability to reproduce the accident. Even under laboratory conditions, a rocket left on the floor would have a negligible chance of hitting an object at that distance and height.
Another factor that causes indignation is that the judiciary denied habeas corpus, arguing that the defendants pose a risk to public order. This preposterous argument is an anticipation of the penalty, breaking the presumption of innocence of the due process and disrespect for human dignity. It was even mentioned that this measure would serve to inhibit new acts. That is, they are punishing these kids with the goal of reaching others.
To worsen the situation, there are allegations of torture on one of the last two defendants who came to us through the defense attorney Wallace Martins. According to reports, one of them was tortured for more than twenty consecutive days, being slapped and hit with slippers, not to mention the psychological torture he suffered and the ban on sunbathing. Keep them prisoners before trial breaks tradition to grant habeas corpus when the defendants have freely presented themselves to authorities.
All of them are political prisoners and their prisons denounce how delicate Rio de Janeiro’s situation is. It is evident that the State does everything to criminalize political activity of social movements. This opens wide the dictatorship that still exists and affects us daily. We are not criminals! We will not accept this situation. We want justice and that our most basic rights are respected.To our brothers of fight and their families, our sincere respect and solidarity.
No one gets left behind!
NO ONE GETS LEFT BEHIND!