The STJ (Superior Court of Justice) acquitted Iury Mateus Correa Alves, sentenced to 7 years and 6 months in prison for drug trafficking based on evidence obtained under torture carried out by São Paulo military police officers.
The attacks took place in March 2023 in Itapevi, a municipality in the Osasco microregion.
The Fifth Panel of the STJ unanimously followed the vote of the rapporteur, Minister Ribeiro Dantas, who declared the nullity of the evidence obtained through violence.
“The attacks perpetrated by the agents are of a serious nature. For no other reason, there is an indication that several parts of the recordings demonstrate the attempt by the police to hide or make it difficult to view the images of the incident,” said Dantas.
“The police officers’ body cameras recorded physical attacks on the patient, who surrendered without resistance, indicating that the approach was carried out with violence, similar to torture”, decided the Panel.
The rapporteur based his decision on the , of the Court of Justice of São Paulo.
Dantas records that Semer “carried out a thorough analysis of the images from the police officers’ body cameras interviewed during the procedural instruction and the forensic examination carried out on the patient after his arrest.”
“The (lost) vote narrates a series of attacks made on the patient when he was already surrendered by the police authorities: strangulation, punches and whips on the back; all of them compatible with the injuries identified on the patient from the forensic examination. “
Semer examined the camera records of police officers Willian Barbosa Pereira dos Santos and Márcio José Carniel Júnior, the only witnesses listed in the process about the circumstances of the drug dealer’s arrest.
The footage captures two other police officers, who were not heard in court. The Military Police sent media without audio, except for the excerpt of the confession. Images have been deleted.
At the custody hearing and in court, the defendant stated that he was attacked by hanging, beating, punching him in the mouth and whipping his back and claimed that he almost fainted when he was hanged. He also stated that, when the attacks began, the police said “turn off the cameras”.
On a second opportunity, Iury reiterated that he was attacked and that he stated that he was threatened with being attacked more if he did not confess, claiming that he was afraid of dying.
The São Paulo Court of Justice refused to annul the evidence. He understood that “the personal search was justified by well-founded suspicion and that the videos from the body cameras of the agents who carried out the arrest do not reveal the practice of excessive violence”.
Semer disagreed. “There is no margin of tolerance that allows the admission of evidence obtained through police violence. On the contrary, the conduct is considered a crime in all its levels of severity”, he stated in a vote explanation.
The STJ considered the American Convention on Human Rights and the Code of Criminal Procedure, which prohibit the use of evidence obtained through torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, and such evidence must be considered null and void.
The Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office had ruled that habeas corpus was not known (that is, the appeal could not have gone to the STJ). Ribeiro Dantas recognized the flagrant illegality and granted the order ex officio.
Iury Alves was represented by public defender Rodrigo Gruppi Carlos da Costa.
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