Retired Brazilian colonel ordered to pay damages for the torture and death of a journalist
Retired Brazilian colonel ordered to pay damages for the torture and death of a journalist
By Associated Press, Updated: Wednesday, June 27, 10:27 AM
SAO PAULO — A Brazilian court has sentenced a retired army colonel to pay damages for the torture and death of a journalist 41 years ago during Brazil’s long military dictatorship.
The anti-torture group Tortura Nunca Mais says it is the first time a former high-ranking officer has been found guilty of crimes committed during the 1964-1985 military government.
Sao Paulo state court Judge Claudia de Lima Menge says in a statement posted Wednesday that former Col. Carlos Alberto Brilhante Ustra was responsible for the “brutal beatings” that led to the death of Luiz Eduardo da Rocha Merlino in a Sao Paulo jail in 1971.
Menge ordered Ustra to pay 50,000 reals ($25,000) each to Merlino’s common-law wife and his sister.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/retired-brazilian-colonel-ordered-to-pay-damages-for-the-torture-and-death-of-a-journalist/2012/06/27/gJQAn9Yu6V_story.html
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This monster led a network of torturers that had even international implications.
Even after the democratization, he was active in torturing. Thomas Skidmore wrote in his The Politics of Military Rule in Brazil that Ustra also tortured the Brazilian leftist actress Bete Mendes, while both were working in Uruguay.
Colonel Ustra.
