Brazil Ensures Chico Mendes' Killer Remains in Prison
12/18/98
*******************************
RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: Brazil Ensures Activist's Killer Remains in Prison
Source: Reuters
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: December 18, 1998
RIO DE JANEIRO, Dec 18 (Reuters) - Brazil has changed an
amnesty decree to ensure that one of the killers of Chico
Mendes, a leader of Amazon rubber tappers and champion of
rain-forest preservation, stays behind bars, Globo TV News
said on Friday.
Darli Alves da Silva and his son Darci were convicted of the
murder of Mendes, a prominent figure in the fight to save
the Amazon forest. Mendes was shot dead in 1988.
The decree, signed last month by President Fernando Henrique
Cardoso and Justice Minister Renan Calheiros, was designed
to give certain convicts an early release from prison.
Globo said the decree technically made Darli Alves da Silva
eligible for early release, since he was now more than 60
years old, had a record of good behaviour in prison over the
last year and had served at least a third of his sentence.
The government's penitentiary committee voted unanimously on
Friday to change the decree so that prisoners who had taken
part in revolts or escape attempts were not eligible for
early release, it said.
Both men, who were sentenced to 19-year terms for the
murder, escaped from a prison in the remote state of Acre.
They were recaptured and transferred to a more secure
facility in the capital, Brasilia.