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Alert

Five suspects arrested in connection with grenade attack on "Correio Popular" offices

(RSF/IFEX) - Five people were arrested on 25 March 2009 in connection with an attempted grenade attack on the headquarters of the Rede Anhanguera de Comunicação (RAC) press group in Campinas (in the southeastern state of São Paulo) on 21 January. All five are allegedly members of - or closely linked with - a crime organisation called the Capital's First Commando (PCC).

Those arrested on 25 March were Maria Odette de Moraes Haddad, a lawyer suspected of passing on instructions for the attack; André Augusto de Carvalho, 29, who allegedly threw the grenades (which failed to go off); Jean Cléber Brito, 33, who allegedly supplied the grenades and who is the only one to have confessed; and two alleged accomplices, Geise Aparecida Pires, 26, and Luciene Bernardino Seixas, 33.

Two detainees, Wanderson Nilton de Paula Lima, 33, and Suelen Caroni Lopes, 27, are accused of giving the orders for the attack from their prison cell. It took place after the "Correio Popular" (a daily owned by RAC) reported that Paula Lima married Luciene Bernardino Seixas in prison. The police say they are seeking other suspects.

Updates alert on the attack against RAC headquarters: http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/100300