Judge Decrees Custody of Adriano Chafik, Instigator of the Felisburgo Massacre

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

According to the judge, the request that the accused be arrested is appropriate given so Adrian chafikmany defensive maneuvers to delay the trial; this is the third time that the jury trial is postponed


08/21/2013

Thais Mota,
Portal Minas Livre

 

For the third time, the Felisburgo Massacre trial was postponed by the Judge. The decision responded to a request by the lawyer for Adriano Chafik Luedy, who claimed health reasons for the postponement for the defendant accused of ordering the attack on the camp Terra Prometida in Felisburgo in Jequitinhonha Valley. At the time, five people died and 12 were injured.


However, the judge Glauco Soares accepted the request for preventive detention of Chafik and three other defendants who would have been tried on Wednesday (August 21, 2013). According to him, "it is clear the impossibility of conducting the trial on this date since it would be an injury to a full defense." Therefore, the judge set a new trial date, which should happen on 10 October this year.

According to the judge, the request that the accused be arrested is appropriate with so many defensive maneuvers to delay the trial. Three of the defendants - Adriano Chafik, Francisco de Assis Rodrigues de Oliveira and Milton Francisco de Souza - are detained but it is not yet determined where they will be imprisoned. In the case of Washington Agostinho da Silva, who did not attend the trial, a warrant against him will be issued.

About 500 members of the Movement of Landless Workers (MST) came from all over the state, especially in the municipality of Felisburgo to follow the trial. According to the MST leader Silvio Netto, despite the further postponement of the trial of the four accused men, the judge's decision was positive.

"We suffered from the legal maneuvers of the defense in collusion with the judiciary. However, this time it was so blatant that they are just stalling a conviction; the judge ordered the arrest of the defendants. For the MST this is an important achievement and recognition of the struggle for agrarian reform and the project for the countryside; so much so that Adriano Chafik went directly to jail," he said.

Postponements

The landowner Adriano Chafik had the trial postponed for another two times since the case was referred to the district of Belo Horizonte. The trial had been scheduled for January 17 and May 15, but on both occasions was delayed.

The first delay was because the judge of the District of Jequitinhonha, where the trial would take place initially, sent the case to Belo Horizonte before the defense of the defendants indicated the witnesses to be heard on that occasion.

In the second delay, the judge from Belo Horizonte, Glauco Soares, justified the postponement due to a defense request to hear about 60 witnesses who had not been questioned by the judge from Jequitinhonha.

Trial

The confessed defendant, Adriano Chafik, had commanded the attack of gunmen who raided the camp Terra Prometida and torched huts and crops. The five victims were executed with shots at close range and 12 other people, including a child, were injured. Chafik received, a few days after the confession, in response to habeas corpus proceedings, his freedom.

Besides Chafik, Washington Agostinho da Silva, Francisco de Assis Rodrigues de Oliveira e Milton Francisco de Souz would also be tried, but who gained freedom in response for the crimes of murder, attempted murder and arson. Chafik was also indicted for conspiracy.

Check out the MST’s note about the arrest of Adriano Chafik:

“From Monday (August 19, 2013), the MST was mobilized in Belo Horizonte. About 500 protesters followed the trial session of Adriano Chafik and three other defendants - gunmen who killed five Landless in the Felisburgo Massacre - on Wednesday (August 21, 2013).

Following the outcome of this trial scheduled for today [August 21, 2013], which has been postponed once again, we came to say publicly:

1 - The arrest of Adriano Chafik and two other gunmen, at the request of the Public Prosecutor of Minas Gerais, helps to alleviate the suffering of families that are victims of this massacre, but does not take away from memory the images nor the consequences of this inhuman act. We recognize the correct and sensible posture of Judge Glauco Soares in determining prison, and we appreciate the commitment of the State Public Ministry and Assistant Prosecutors.

2 - Justice will only be done so with the full and final conviction of the killers in a jury trial on October 10, 2013, date on which the trial was reset, and the compensation the families who lost everything they had, in having their belongings burned and loved ones brutally killed.

3 - That justice is also made in part of the agrarian law, since the 60 families who now occupy the Fazenda Nova Alegria in Felisburgo, still suffer imminent eviction processes of the 12th Federal Court, that the decree of expropriation for Agrarian Reform was opposed by Chafik, and continues being processed at risk of extinguishing the settlement project in which families live.

4 – It is also absurd that the tract of vacant land, 1,273 acres, recorded in the judgment of the Supreme Court of a final decision has not been demarcated by the Institute of Lands of Minas Gerais (MG-ITER), which would give a minimum of legal certainty to families.

5 – In face of the reality of the chicanery of the defense of Chafik, who has delayed the trial for the fourth time, we will not become weary. We will return to the door of the Court as often as needed. Along with us, is public opinion, and, in every maneuver, Chafik it just reinforces that he is afraid to face justice. With this, he admits his guilt.