Denounced by our report over a year ago, the traditional strategies of those who defend landowners who order assassinations in the state of Pará— after seeking to postpone court procedures with incidents and interruptions of the legal proceedings— have once again proven efficient against the calls to end impunity. At the court hearings at the Belém Judicial Court District, which tried and convicted Tato as responsible for hiring the executors of the nun Dorothy Mae Stang, human rights defenders sought once again to speed up the proceedings of those accused of hiring the gunmen to commit the crime, Bida and Taradão, by strictly following the time stipulated by the legal proceedings at the Judicial Court of Pará.  However, the attempts of these organizations were barred, and were not only slowed to a protracted pace, but all the authorities involved adhere to this sluggish process in the higher courts.  Up to this date, the lawsuit remains in the Court of Appeals in Brasilia, with the sole intent of extending these proceedings.

Prophecies do not change the future

The lawyers for the large landowners have persistently traced a strategy of dismantling the proceedings where the killers of human rights defenders have been judged separately from those who order these assassinations, and to delay the court proceeding for the latter for as long as possible.  To carry out this task, these landowners always find a judge in a given jurisdiction that may grant habeas corpus, thereby extending the case to allow for dismissal due to expiration of the reasonable time period for the case, even though this assertion legally does not hold when the time is surpassed due to the defense’s neglect.  (From the article “The many deaths of Sister Dorothy Mae Stang,” in the report Human Rights in Brazil 2005)

Aton Fon Filho[1]

As the result of court hearings, Amair Feijoli da Cunha, known as Tato, was found guilty and sentenced to serve 18 years in prison for ordering the death of the nun Dorothy Mae Stang.

The court decision on Tato’s case came from the fact that he was connected to the convicted hired gunmen Vitalmiro Bastos de Moura, known as Bida, and Regivaldo Galvão, known as Taradão, for plotting, directing, and contracting the killers of Sister Dorothy.

 When Tato confirmed during interrogation that the weapon used in the assassination was furnished by Bida, and that they decided to kill the nun at a meeting in Regivaldo's car sales lot, these statements, which were confirmed by a videotaped shown to the jury, validated the judicial proof.

 This fact, added to the previous decision of the jury– when the executors of the crime, Rayfran das Neves Sales (known as Fogoió) and Clodoaldo Carlos Batista (known as Eduardo), claimed at the time they were found guilty and sentenced in December 2005, to 27 and 17 years in prison respectively, that the crime was committed under the promise of a payment –established a definite connection between the land owners and the assassins.

The number of people implicated in this case, the possibility of impunity of those who ordered the crime, and the possible acquittal of Rayfran, Clodoaldo, and Tato, or the exclusion of the incriminating fact of promise of payment, established a debate between the largest law firms in the state of Pará.

The number of attorneys offering to defend Rayfran, Clodoaldo, and Tato— almost fighting to take over their case— has generated a depressing scene of three or four lawyers appearing on the court date waiting to be chosen by the accused, much like suitors at the door of a princess’ castle.

Equivalent to jus prima noctis, even more than the acquittal or reduced sentence for those accused of the crime, the exclusion of the landowners involved in the case was announced through the dismissal of the qualifying proof of the assassins’ contracts.  As a result, this dismissal rewards the landowners involved in the case.

Defeated early in their attempt to remove Bida and Taradão from the lawsuit, their deceit focused on passively delaying the release of the accused, on a guarantee of their freedom before the case reached the court’s decision, and on hearings of a possible decision of conviction.

 In this case, hope and effort by human rights organizations, as well as marches and protests, are futile; there are no worthwhile judicial claims that may face the well-elaborated methods developed and used to acquit these big Paraense bosses from this crime.

Denounced by our report over a year ago, the traditional strategies of those who defend landowners who order assassinations in the state of Pará— after seeking to postpone court procedures with incidents and interruptions of the legal proceedings— have once again proven efficient against the calls to end impunity.

When the court hearings occurred in the Belém Judicial Court District, which tried and convicted Tato as the intermediary responsible for hiring the executors of the nun, human rights defenders sought once again at the Pará Judicial Court to speed up the proceedings of those accused of hiring the gunmen to commit the crime, Bida and Taradão, by strictly following the time stipulated by the legal proceedings.

The prosecutors were politely and courteously received by the authorities, and presented their claims, which were summed up in their last analysis as the fulfilling of penal processional law.  They received from all authorities involved their word and promise that every possible effort would be made to avoid maneuvers to slow down the process.

However, the attempts of these organizations were barred, and were not only slowed to a protracted pace, but all the authorities involved adhere to this sluggish process in the higher courts.  Up to this date, the lawsuit remains in the Court of Appeals in Brasilia, with the sole intent of extending these proceedings.

And, as if this wasn’t enough, this deceit produced very concrete effects.

As such, the Supreme Federal Court granted a preliminary habeas corpus for the defense of the accused Regivaldo Galvão, granting him the right to remain free until the court date for his appeal.  This announcement was expected in light of the history of the efficacy of their methodology.

Even though the defense for Bida and Taradão has filed an appeal – of special and extraordinary character – and had not being granted a case dismissal— meaning, not having achieved the cancellation of their case by the Court of Justice of Belém— the judicial authorities have avoided setting a court date for the defendants, and it is not possible to point out that they yielded to the defendants’ wishes, because a claim to this end has not been filed.

If the judges have a consciousness, it seems that it has acted in the same way as always: in the manner that allows those who are in power to continue to exercise power; those who have always killed to keep on killing; and those who have order these killings to continue ordering them.

And if judges continue to allow a delay in court procedures, and the lawyers for the defendants continue to apply the same strategy— distancing those who order the killing from those who actually kill by increasing the time between the court hearings of a given individual— the inefficient performance by the Judiciary will become the norm. 

For this reason, when recognizing the words that predict and announce specific artifices used in the lawsuit, it is necessary to recognize that those same words indicate the need for innovation by those working on human rights defense, to ensure that killings and mistreatment of people do not become an endless routine in the state of Pará.

To announce a calamitous event does not resolve a situation, if one cannot keep it from happening. Prophecies do not change the future.