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Alert

Policeman convicted of journalist's 1998 murder rearrested

(IPYS/IFEX) - On 28 February 2007, police officer Monzart Castro Brasil, convicted of the murder of a journalist, was rearrested. He had been convicted and sentenced in September 2003 to 18 years in prison for the murder of Manoel Leal de Oliveira, the editor and founder of the daily newspaper "A Região". The murder took place in 1998 in the state of Bahía, in the country's northeast. However, in December 2003, Judge Aliomar Silva Brito freed the policeman, after accepting a writ of habeas corpus requesting his liberty pending the outcome of his appeal. The order for his re-capture was issued by Itabuna District Judge Marco Antônio Santos Bandeira.

The murder was committed on 14 January 1998, two weeks after ""A Região" linked the policeman to surveillance of opponents of Fernando Gomes, ex-mayor of the city. The newspaper reported that the policeman had received money for carrying out the surveillance. Leal de Oliveira was shot six times when on his way home to an Itabuna suburb. During the trial, three witnesses confirmed that they saw the policeman leave a car and shoot the journalist.
Two other people were also accused of taking part in the homicide: Marcone Rodrigues Sarmento, a former city council official, and Thomas Iracy Guedes, a common criminal. Guedes, who was suspected of driving the car in which the murderers rode, was acquitted by the authorities in September 2003. Sarmento is free.

This alert was prepared by IPYS with information provided by the Brazilian Investigative Journalism Association (Associação Brasileira de Jornalismo Investigativo, ABRAJI).