This Monday (2) approved the creation of the heinous crime of forced disappearance of people.
The crime was defined as the act of a public official or person with authorization, support or acquiescence from the State seizing, detaining, kidnapping, kidnapping, keeping in private prison or depriving someone of their freedom. The text was approved symbolically and will go to the .
The project determines a sentence of 10 to 20 years in prison, in addition to payment of a fine. Anyone who acts to cover up, conceal or keep hidden the acts described will also incur the same penalty, including failing to provide information or deliver documents that allow the location of the victim or their remains.
The text also says that, even if the deprivation of liberty is carried out in accordance with the law, the subsequent denial of information about the person’s whereabouts constitutes a crime.
The penalty is 12 to 24 years if torture is used and 20 to 30 years if the crime results in death. In both cases, there is a provision for a fine.
The text also provides for an increase of one-third to one-half of the sentence when the disappearance lasts more than 30 days, the victim is a child, teenager, elderly person, pregnant woman, person with a disability or someone who has difficulty resisting. The same increase applies if there is a kinship or hierarchy relationship between perpetrator and victim or if the person is removed from national territory.
The crime is also defined as permanent, being considered completed until the person is released or their whereabouts are not discovered, even if they have died.
The project had been presented in 2011 by the then senator Vital do Rêgo and was approved by the Senate in 2013. The text returns to the senators for analysis as it underwent changes during its processing in the Chamber. The initial project included crimes committed by an armed or paramilitary group, which was not maintained in the Chamber, where the project was reported by deputy Orlando Silva (PC of B-SP).
“The forced disappearance of people constitutes one of the most heinous types of human rights violations. This is due to its high capacity to impose, on a continuous basis, suffering, anguish, psychological damage and uncertainty on the families of the victims, as well as on the community that surrounds them”, argued the rapporteur in his vote.
For opposition parliamentarians, the text is intended to revisit crimes committed by the dictatorship. “They want to end the amnesty to persecute some soldiers, to make the lives of some families hell, to open some wounds”, stated deputy Domingos Sávio (PL-MG).
The bench tried to obstruct the vote and proposed amendments and highlights, as it defended the inclusion of an article to exclude crimes that occurred during the Brazilian government and were amnestied during redemocratization.
The rapporteur rejected the proposal and argued that the law could not be retroactive, and “only cases of forced disappearance that continue after the entry into force of the law will be judged”, regardless of the date on which the criminal action began.
“What we are discussing here is human trafficking, the kidnapping of people, people who disappear within the structure of the State”, countered congresswoman Jandira Feghali (PC of B-RJ), who reinforced the rapporteur’s interpretation.
“We are talking about crimes that State agents regrettably still commit”, defended congresswoman Maria do Rosário (PT-RS).
