By Isabela Fraga
The Attorney General of Maranhão, Regina Lúcia de Almeida Rocha, claimed last week that the defense in the trial for the murder of journalist Décio Sá is attempting to “delay the course of proceedings” against the accused, said G1.
On Tuesday, Jan. 29, defense attorney Aldenor Rebouças asked for an order to suspend the reading of the accusations. The request was granted by the judge, said the Brazilian Press Agency (ABI). According to G1, the attorney general also submitted a writ of security to annul the order and restart the proceedings.
In the request for the order, Cunha said he had not been given access to the content of the wiretaps used by the prosecution to make its accusation. Meanwhile, the attorney general said in her request to annul that Rebouças “had full, unrestricted prior access to all records.” Rocha added that the hearing was scheduled in advance and that security measures had been taken to make it happen, said the website of the Public Prosecutor of Maranhão. When the defense’s request was granted, only three of the 15 accusations scheduled for the day had been heard.
In June 2012, the Maranhão police declared Décio Sá’s murder solved. Sá was show to death on April 23 in a bar in São Luís, the state’s capital. The prosecution accused 15 people of the crime.
Note from the editor: This story was originally published by the Knight Center’s blog Journalism in the Americas, the predecessor of LatAm Journalism Review.
