This week, in an unprecedented way, the Court of Justice of the State of Rio de Janeiro ordered the state government to pay compensation to the families of cousins Emily Vitória, aged 4, and Rebecca dos Santos, aged 7.
They were killed during a police action, on December 4, 2020, in the Sapinho community, in Duque de Caxias, Baixada Fluminense. The action is still subject to appeal.
The compensation action, deemed valid, was proposed by the Public Defender’s Office. The Court condemned the state of Rio de Janeiro not only to pay compensation to the girls’ families for the deaths that occurred in the context of a police operation, but went further, also condemning the state to pay specific compensation due to serious failures in the criminal investigation.
According to public defender André Castro, from the Center for the Defense of Human Rights, responsible for the case, “the sentence from the judiciary carefully examines the case and will verify that the investigation did not meet the necessary criteria provided by law for an adequate investigation and, therefore, failed the families in seeking the truth, so much so that to this day it is not known who those responsible are”, he said.
“This sentence brings this very important aspect, in a way unprecedented, which protects not only the right to reparation, but also the right to truth that families have. Right to truth is the right to know who was responsible or responsible for the deaths of the girls Emily and Rebecca”, stated Castro.
In the decision, judge Cristiana Aparecida de Souza Donato determines the payment of compensation for moral damages and pensions to the victims’ families.
The judge cited a summary of the Federal Supreme Court in which it says that the “The State is responsible in the civil sphere for death or injury resulting from public security operations, in terms of administrative risk”.
Also according to the summary, the inconclusive expert opinion on the origin of the fatal shooting during police and military operations “is not sufficient, in itself, to rule out the State’s civil liability, as it constitutes an evidentiary element”.
The Government of the State of Rio de Janeiro says, in a note, that it is still awaiting the Court’s analysis of the motions for clarification made by the Public Defender’s Office to decide whether or not it will file an appeal against the court ruling.
According to the government, the investigation conducted by the Baixada Fluminense Homicide Police Station concluded that the shots that hit the victims did not come from the military police officers being investigated.
“Based on the expert reports and other technical evidence gathered throughout the investigation, the Public Prosecutor’s Office requested that the procedure in relation to the security agents be archived. The investigations also identified the participation of two drug traffickers in the events, who were indicted by the Civil Police”, he highlighted.
The note also says that, during the investigation, several steps were taken, interviews with witnesses, on-site expertise, ballistic examinations, inspections of the victims’ bodies, simulated reproduction of the facts and analysis of all available evidence.
