Americas

Home page

Americas

Brazilian police kill 132, face inquiry

09 July 2011 03:45 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The Homicide Department of the Brazilian Police is conducting an investigation into the case of 132 killings committed by the country’s military police over the past three months, APA reports quoting Press TV.

The investigation is meant to determine the reason for the killings by the military police while pursuing criminal suspects, the Press TV correspondent in Brazil reported on Friday.

In June 2011 there were 61 killings, an average of two per day, which was an 85% increase compared to June 2010.

Sao Paulo Police Chief Marcos Carneiro de Lima declared that the investigation could take months.

"There are witnesses, expert’s appraisals to be gathered and evaluated," O Estado de S. Paulo newspaper quoted him as saying on Friday.

He also insisted that the police tell the truth because "lying is against justice," although nobody has so far been tried and found guilty.

Over the past six months, there have been a string of execution-style murders in Sao Paulo in which 30 people have been shot dead by masked gunmen.

Meanwhile, in Rio de Janeiro the number of police killings rose to 74 last May, the most recent month for which data were available.

And there were 589 murders in Rio in May 2011.