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Doctor gets 77 years for Brazil sect killings
By Reese Ewing
Reuters (04.09.2003)/ HRWF Int. (10.09.2003) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - Email info@hrwf.net - A Brazilian court sentenced a doctor to 77 years in prison for the ritual mutilation and killing of young boys in a remote Amazon town over a decade ago, a prosecutor in the case said on Thursday.
Anisio Ferreira de Souza received 57 years for the gruesome killings of three boys and 20 more years for the attempted murder of two other boys who escaped from their captors after having their sexual organs removed.
Thirteen years after the first killings, the trial is being closely followed as a test of Brazil's ability to bring justice to remote areas where the law may be under the control of the local elite.
"The success of this trial shows that the impunity of years past is over -- things in Brazil are changing," said Clodomir Araujo, one of the prosecutors trying the case.
Local news broadcasts showed the aged Souza sitting hunched before judge Ronaldo Valle. As he read the sentence, the courtroom erupted into applause.
Araujo added that the two victims who had escaped after being mutilated were critical witnesses in the case.
Another doctor involved in the killings, Sergio Brandao, will be sentenced on Monday. Two other men were sentenced last week to a total 92 years in jail for the murders and mutilations.
The fifth defendant, sect leader Valentina de Andrade, is set to be sentenced on Sept. 22.
Earlier on Thursday, Andrade was jailed after she tried to flee the country.
Valle ordered Andrade's arrest after police found she had tried to catch a flight to neighboring Argentina on Tuesday. She had checked in but had turned around after finding she had to go through passport control, which is carried out by federal police in Brazil.
Valle said this was evidence that she might flee before her sentencing, court officials said. She was handcuffed and escorted from the court by police in the Amazon town of Belem and taken to a local women's jail.
The prosecution says she is the leader of a sect known as Superior Universal Alignment, which was founded in Argentina.
A group representing the victims says Andrade believes she was contacted by a medium who told her boys born after 1981 were possessed by the devil.
A group representing the victims' families says there were many more victims -- 19 in total. They were aged between 8 and 13 and were tortured or killed between 1989 and 1993 in the Amazon town of Altamira. Some had their eyes gouged out, wrists slit and sexual organs cut off.
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Brazilian Evangelicals tried for 'hate crime' violation
Spiritist groups press lawsuit against beach evangelists
by David Miller
Compass (19.05.2003)/ HRWF Int. (23.05.2003) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - Email info@hrwf.net - A heated debate over freedom of religion in Brazil has gone to court. Legal representatives of Umbanda and Candomble spiritist groups are pressing a lawsuit against Baptist pastor Joaquim de Andrade, 41, and Aldo dos Santos Menezes, 33, a deacon of the Anglican Church, in connection with an annual evangelistic outreach on the beaches of Sao Paulo state.
Spiritists accuse the two men of violating Brazil's "hate crime" law by distributing evangelistic tracts that, they say, disparage Iemanja, an African deity they worship as "Goddess of the Sea." The plaintiffs also charge Andrade and Menezes with "inciting evangelicals to commit acts contrary to the liberty of religious belief," in connection with their part in mobilizing Christians to share the gospel at a spiritist festival celebrated each December at a popular Iemanja shrine at Praia Grande.
At a hearing on April 16, Sao Paulo judge Osvaldo Palotti Jr. found Andrade and Menezes guilty of the charges and fined them each 1,000 reais (about $300). He warned the men that if they did not stop proselytizing spiritists at the festival, they would face stiffer consequences next time.
The hate crime statute, technically known as Federal Law number 9.459, declares it a crime to "practice, induce, or incite discrimination or prejudice against race, color, ethnicity, religion or national origin" and mandates one to three years in jail and a fine for offenders.
Following the hearing, Andrade and Menezes refused to pay the fine and filed a petition on April 28 to annul the decision.
"To sign this 'agreement' (to pay the fine) would be a victory for the Umbandistas who are trying to deny us our religious freedom," Andrade said. "It would mean admitting guilt and giving the impression that Christians are somehow engaging in criminal activities by preaching and practicing their faith."
Andrade has helped organize the outreach to spiritists, known as the "Coast for Christ Crusade," since its inception in 1984. Participants attend training sessions to learn about spiritism and how to relate to the thousands of devotees who attend the annual Iemanja festival. The trainings are sponsored by AGIR, an evangelical research and outreach agency in Sao Paulo which Andrade co-directs.
Paul Carden, executive director of the U.S.-based Centers for Apologetics Research, took part in the coastal crusades while living in Brazil in the 1980s. "A lot of psychics and mediums sort of set up shop on the beaches, and people line up to get a psychic reading or receive some sort of mediumistic blessing," he said.
"So some of our people would set up places to talk to spiritists about what was bothering them and counsel and pray for them. This, of course, is in a public place, on a municipal beach where the basic laws of free expression prevail."
Friction between spiritists and evangelicals arose from an email message Andrade sent to a Christian electronic bulletin board in October 2001, announcing plans for that year's outreach. Spiritists reacted to the notice with outrage, bombarding Andrade with email messages and phone calls warning him to call off the crusade. The Praia Grande sheriff's department informed Andrade of a criminal complaint against him that could result in one to five years imprisonment.
The hostility surprised Andrade and his associates, but they went ahead with plans as in previous years. Immediately after the December 2001 festival, the Supreme Umbanda Entity of the State of Sao Paulo pressed charges against Andrade and Menezes, who authored a tract distributed at the Iemanja festival.
The leaflet carried an image of the goddess on the cover along with the title, "The Cult [or Worship*] of Iemanja." Spiritists claim the tract's assertion that Iemanja worship is based on legend represents a "prejudicial message" against their faith and is thus punishable by law.
"Our organization desires to stop prejudicial practices, since it does not believe that one's beliefs should be imposed upon another based on the fallacious argument that his are better," they argue.
Andrade counters that, unlike historical faiths such as Islam and Christianity, Afro-Brazilian Spiritism is based on folk legends. "They can believe them if they want to, but they must realize they are fairy tales," he said. "To forbid saying that is what should be considered religious intolerance."
Dr. Davi Teixeira, a law professor at the University of Sao Paulo, has filed a motion asserting judicial irregularities in the case. The appeal cites the absence of the district attorney during the hearing and the judge's refusal to allow defendants to confer with their legal counsel, Dr. Cicero Duarte. Teixeira also contends that the plaintiffs' case was not sufficient to prove a violation of the law.
However, the evangelical community recognizes that much larger legal issues are at stake in this landmark case.
"This is a precedent-setting case," Carden said. "If Christians cannot freely share their faith with interested bystanders in a public place, without the potential of some punishment under the pretext of having committed a hate crime, then this profoundly alters the spiritual equation in that country, which until now has enjoyed wide-ranging religious freedoms."
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