RIGHTS-BRAZIL: Anti-Torture Campaign Implicates Prosecutors

By Mario Osava Reprint | | Print |

Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, Nov 23 2001 (IPS) - Torture is routinely used to extract confessions from suspects in Brazil, not only by police, but by public prosecutors and “torture specialists” as well, according to the non-governmental National Human Rights Movement (MNDH).

The MNDH, which set up a free telephone hotline, found convincing evidence of 357 cases of torture and 63 cases of “cruel, inhumane, and degrading treatment” within the space of just 15 days, Romeu Olmar, the national secretary of the MNDH, which links 316 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) across the country, told IPS.

In 75 percent of the cases, the perpetrators were “public agents” – in other words, police and officials in public institutions. The so-called Permanent National Campaign Against Torture, launched on Oct 30, has the backing of the Secretariat of Human Rights, which answers to the Justice Ministry.

“One novel aspect is the presence of prosecutors along with police” in sessions in which violence is used to extract confessions from suspects. “Five such cases were reported last week,” said Olmar.

Complicity by prosecutors, which has stained the reputation of the public prosecutor’s office, an institution that is respected in Brazil, was found in less urbanised areas in the northern and west-central regions of the country. But the MNDH also received information on one such case in the state of Sao Paulo, the richest part of this country of 170 million.

Another novelty reported by the MNDH was the use of a “torture specialist,” called in by police stations to participate in “interrogations.” The information available did not permit the MNDH to determine whether such specialists were police officers themselves.

As rights groups like Amnesty International have pointed out in the past, detainees in Brazil are frequently subjected to torture. The most common practices used by police are blows with rubber truncheons or iron bars, electric shock, suffocation, near drowning, and the “palo de arara” in which the victim is hung from a pole by their hands and legs, which are tied together.

But the traditional torture practices have been “modernised,” said the MNDH, by replacing the pole used in the “palo de arara” with a portable metal structure, and the plastic bag used to suffocate people with a special rubber mask.

There have also been innovations using pepper spray that stings the eyes for two or three days but leaves no scars, a special concern of torturers, said Olmar.

By the phrase “cruel treatment,” the MNDH was referring, for example, to the state of neglect in which many elderly people live in public old people’s homes, where they are often left unwashed and underfed, the activist explained.

The hotline set up by the Permanent National Campaign Against Torture had received a total of 5,240 calls by Thursday afternoon. The free hotline is attended from Monday to Friday, except on holidays. Within the next few days, the public will also be able to report cases over the Internet and by e-mail.

Most callers speak very little, which indicates that they do not feel safe or are under direct threat. Others, concerned about possible risks they might face by calling, ask detailed questions about the programme and about who will have access to the information they provide.

Cases that clearly point to the use of torture are passed on to the competent authorities and followed through by the MNDH and the Justice Ministry’s Human Rights Secretariat until a concrete result is achieved.

The hotline’s databank is automatically updated, thanks to the computerisation of the project financed by the Human Rights Secretariat.

This partnership between civil society and government agencies has favoured the search for effective solutions against the use of violence by public agents, said Olmar.

On Nov 21 alone, the hotline received 390 phone calls, which led to 19 confirmed cases of torture. The number of phone calls has increased day by day, thanks to the growing visibility of the programme, which is being carried out in all of Brazil’s 27 states, although it has not yet been officially launched in half of the states.

Through a one-year agreement signed by the MNDH and the government, the data compiled by the hotline and accompanying e- mail service will be studied by a team of experts that will come up with proposals for the consciousness-raising aspect of the campaign.

The aim is to eradicate the use of torture by boosting awareness on the phenomenon and mobilising public institutions and society at large, and through the adoption of preventive and oversight measures, controls, and channels for providing assistance and protection to victims and witnesses.

A law passed in 1997 making torture a crime and establishing sanctions for perpetrators has hardly been enforced. Prosecutors and judges themselves avoid using it, preferring to classify cases as “mistreatment or abuse of authority,” said Olmar.

Contributing to the lack of enforcement is the fact that an immense majority of the victims are poor, while 18 percent are minors – “extremely vulnerable people who do not complain to the police,” said the activist.

Torture in Brazil is used to extract confessions as a “method of police investigation,” because it offers immediate results, said Olmar. Brazilian courts accept confessions signed under duress, in contravention of an international treaty against torture to which Brazil is a signatory, he pointed out.

According to the activist, such cases involve “cowardly acts” because not only are the victims defenceless, but the perpetrators tend to act in groups. In 139 cases in which civilian police were implicated, 304 individuals were accused of torture – an average of 2.2 per case.

The national campaign against torture includes the creation of committees at a national and state level made up of police officials, legal authorities, members of the public prosecutor’s office and representatives of civil society.