Court sets trial date for Patricia Acioli's killers.
Daniel Santos Benitez Lopez will be judged on September 20th, Claudio Luiz Silva de Oliveira on November 7th, and on December 4th it will be the turn of Charles Azevedo Tavares, Alex Ribeiro Pereira, Sammy dos Santos Quintanilha and Handerson Lentz Henriques da Silva.
Akemi Nitahara
Reporter from Agência Brasil
Rio de Janeiro - The 3rd Jury Court of Niterói has scheduled the trial of the former military police officers accused of participating in the death of Judge Patrícia Lourival Acioli in August 2011. Daniel Santos Benitez Lopez will be tried on September 20th, Claudio Luiz Silva de Oliveira on November 7th, and on December 4th it will be the turn of Charles Azevedo Tavares, Alex Ribeiro Pereira, Sammy dos Santos Quintanilha and Handerson Lentz Henriques da Silva.
They filed appeals against the decision of the 3rd Criminal Chamber of the Court of Justice of the State of Rio de Janeiro (TJRJ) with the Superior Court of Justice and the Supreme Federal Court, which are still analyzing the documents. The TJRJ requested that the defendants not face a jury trial, but the judge of the 3rd Jury Court decided to maintain the procedural course.
Judge Patrícia Lourival Acioli was the head of the 4th Criminal Court of São Gonçalo, in the metropolitan region of Rio de Janeiro, and was murdered at her doorstep in Niterói. She worked on several cases analyzing the involvement of military police officers in cases registered as acts of resistance.
Five police officers have already been convicted: Carlos Adílio Maciel dos Santos, Jefferson de Araujo Miranda, Jovanis Falcão, Junior Cezar de Medeiros, and Sérgio Costa Júnior.