Protests: Six months with no response

Police abuse at June demonstrations still unpunished

12/11/2013

Six months after one of the most tense and violent days of the demonstrations that occurred in Brazil in 2013, the São Paulo state government has still not responded to the victims or to civil society organizations on the excesses committed by the State. Lawsuits are at a standstill and there has been no progress on the development of transparent procedures for police action in situations of unrest.

Half a year later, it is still not known what unleashed the disastrous intervention by the military police on June 13. According to testimonies gathered by Conectas at the time, the police used abusive force, encircled demonstrators and made several arrests for “verification” – which is illegal.

The organization even filed a Freedom of Information request with eight questions to find out, among other things, who gave the order to attack the demonstrators, how much ammunition was used and how the riot police is trained to handle demonstrations.

Given the lack of a response from the state government, Conectas took the case to the Internal Affairs Office of the São Paulo State Administration. On Tuesday, December 10, this office ordered the State Public Security Department to process the request within five working days.

“The lack of response raises questions about the willingness of the state government to resolve the serious problems that exist in the structure of the police,” said Rafael Custódio, coordinator of the Justice program at Conectas. “The Public Security Department closes up just when it should be open to the contributions of society, which is clearly unhappy with the direction of the state’s security policies. We do not know, for example, the standard operating procedure that regulates the actions of the military police in situations of unrest. This is inadmissible.”

Standstill

Another cause for concern is the paralysis of the São Paulo State Public Prosecutors Office in the investigation into the conduct of Military Police Colonel Ben Hur Junqueira in the June 13 police operation. Conectas, the Free Fare Movement and another 16 organizations requested in October that the state investigate the arrests for verification ordered by the colonel and recorded on video by the State Public Defender’s Office. To date, no charges have been filed.

The only progress so far has come from the Federal Public Prosecutors Office, which sent an official request to the Public Security Department in early December asking for information on the incident.

During the protests, Conectas also submitted an Urgent Appeal to five UN special rapporteurs: Maina Kiai, special rapporteur on the Rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association; Frank la Rue, special rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression; Margaret Sekaggya, special rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders; Juan Mendez, special rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment; and El Hadji Malick Sow, chair-rapporteur of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.

See the reports of the victims of June 13: