"The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomed a Brazilian court’s decision on Tuesday [April 23] to uphold the conviction of four men for the 2012 murder of journalist Valério Luiz de Oliveira. Oliveira was shot dead […] while leaving his offices at Rádio Jornal 820 AM […] in Goiânia, the capital of the central Brazilian state of Goiás. Five men were charged with Oliveira’s murder in 2013.
[…] Maurício Borges Sampaio, the former president of football club Atlético Goianiense, was sentenced to 16 years in prison for masterminding the killing. Sampaio was accused of ordering the killing in retaliation for Oliveira’s critical reporting. Ademá Figuerêdo Aguiar Filho was given a 16-year sentence, and Marcus Vinicius Pereira Xavier and Urbano de Carvalho Malta received 14-year sentences for participating in planning and carrying out the crime. The four men were not jailed because their attorneys appealed their convictions.
On Feb. 29, 2024, Daniela Teixeira of the Superior Court of Justice (STJ) annulled the convictions on the grounds that Xavier’s 2015 hearing took place without the other defendants or their attorneys being present. On April 12, Teixeira reversed her decision, following an appeal by the prosecution […]. On April 23, the Goiás state court unanimously confirmed the 2022 convictions."
