Torture Technique of Breaking Prisoners' Fingers Is Detected in Five States in Brazil
The government of Ceará claims to repudiate any act that violates human dignity
Jun.13.2023 1:33PM
Rogério Pagnan
SÃO PAULO
The hearings had barely begun when Judge Raynes Viana de Vasconcelos, from the 1st Criminal Execution Court in Fortaleza, Ceará, informed officials that he would suspend the agenda for that day to verify news brought up by a prisoner during his testimony.
The judge went to a prison in the city of Itaitinga, where 72 prisoners had been beaten the night before by penitentiary agents. Some of the prisoners had fractured fingers.
"A horror scene. The guys are all broken, all injured. Scandalous torture" said public defender Delano Benevides de Medeiros Filho, who was the first to spot the wounded.
The flagrant registered by the authorities of Ceará, in September 2022, confirmed the suspicions that had been haunting the state's prison system for years and that point to a possible routine of violence against prisoners, which includes a specific technique for breaking fingers, which is not exclusive to Ceará.
More:
https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/internacional/en/brazil/2023/06/torture-technique-of-breaking-prisoners-fingers-is-detected-in-five-states-in-brazil.shtml