News
Service 189/96
AI INDEX: AMR 19/31/96
21 OCTOBER 1996
BRAZIL: AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL CALLS FOR FEDERAL INVESTIGATION INTO
KILLING OF HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDER
Amnesty International is calling for the federal police to investigate
yesterday's killing of Gilson Nogueira, a lawyer investigating cases of
death squad crimes in Rio Grande do Norte state.
The 34-year-old lawyer was shot dead on his doorstep in Natal, Rio
Grande do Norte, by six men. He was killed by 13 shots, most of them to
the head.
"The Brazilian human rights movement has lost a courageous and
committed activist," Amnesty International said today.
"The federal government now has the responsibility to ensure that
Gilson Nogueira's death does not result in the impunity that he fought
against."
Gilson Nogueira and his colleagues at the Centro de Direitos Humanos e
Memória Popular (CDHMP), Centre for Human Rights and Collective Memory,
had received repeated death threats in connection with their work in
investigating and exposing the activities of a death squad which appears
to enjoy the protection of the Rio Grande do Norte authorities. The
death squad, known as the Meninos de Ouro, Golden Boys, is responsible
for numerous killings and other crimes in the poor
neighbourhoods of Natal.
Gilson Nogueira was working with a special commission set up in May 1995
by the Rio Grande do Norte attorney general to investigate the death
squad and its connection to the authorities. Gilson Nogueira's work also
included legal representation for the families of death squad victims,
including those of the "Mãe Luíza massacre" of 5 March 1995,
in which two people were killed, one a pregnant woman.
Amnesty International has taken up many cases in Brazil of death
threats, attempted killings and killings of people working in defence of
the victims of human rights such as lawyers, church workers, trade
unionists and members of human rights groups.
In May 1996, an international conference in Bogotá, Colombia, on the
protection of human rights defenders in Latin America and the Caribbean,
organized by Amnesty International, called upon state and
intergovernmental bodies to guarantee the free exercise of the rights to
promote and defend human rights.
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