Rio de Janeiro court releases 3 Jacarezinho operation detainees

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Three of the six prisoners arrested on May 6 in the Civil Police’s Operation in the Jacarezinho favela, in Rio de Janeiro’s North Zone, will be released by the courts. The issuance of the release orders was determined on June 2 by Judge Joaquim Domingos de Almeida Neto, from the 7th Criminal Chamber of the Rio de Janeiro State Court of Justice (TJRJ).

Patrick Marcelo da Silva Francisco, Max Arthur Vasconcellos de Souza and Vinicius Pereira da Silva will be released. According to the TJRJ, the request for a preliminary injunction was brought by Francisco’s defense due to the excess time of incarceration since the suspect’s arrest. The magistrate extended the release to two other prisoners, considering that no indictment has been brought against them.

The three were arrested “in flagrant” during the operation, accused of the crimes of drug trafficking and association with drug trafficking, and had the custody converted into preventive detention on May 8, during a hearing. In the records, the magistrate considered that the excessive delay with no charges being filed against the prisoners characterizes illegal restraint.

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“I note that the granting of the injunction is a necessary measure, given the illegal restraint for excess time. By analyzing the documentation submitted, I could see that the defendant and the co-defendants have been under preventive detention since May 6, 2021, with no indictment being filed, which far exceeds the reasonable period of time,” he argued.

For the judge, the delay in completing the investigation and in filing the indictment is also illegal coercion.

“Indeed, what we see is an unreasonable delay in completing the police investigation, with no contribution from the defendant, so I determine that illegal coercion is present since the acceptable limit for completing the investigation phase has been exceeded, with no contribution from the defense,” argued the magistrate.

The Jacarezinho operation supposedly aimed to fight armed groups of drug dealers that were recruiting children for crime. After many protests against the way the operation was conducted, which left 28 dead, the Rio de Janeiro State Civil Police Secretariat (SEPOL) decided to keep all information on police operations conducted in the state under a seal of confidentiality for five years.

Operation Exceptis was the operation with the highest number of deaths in clashes between police and drug dealers in Rio. The operation was coordinated by the Police Department for the Protection of Children and Adolescents (DPCA), with the support of the General Department of Specialized Police (DGPE), the General Department of the Capital Police (DGPC) and the Special Resources Coordination (CORE).