Former president of Atlético-GO is sentenced to 16 years in prison for the death of a journalist

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The Goiânia Jury Court sentenced former Atlético-GO president Maurício Sampaio to 16 years in prison, in an initially closed regime, for the murder of journalist Valério Luiz de Oliveira, ten years after the crime. He is accused of being the mastermind. Three other defendants also received sentences and one was acquitted.

According to the Goiás Public Prosecutor’s Office, the murder was motivated by Valerio Luiz’s criticism of Atlético-GO’s board.

The crime was committed at 2 pm on July 5, 2012, after the journalist left the radio station where he worked in the capital. He died at the scene, aged 49, shot six times at point-blank range, inside his car. At the time, Sampaio was director of the football team.

The others convicted of involvement in the crime were military police officer Ademá Figuerêdo Aguiar Filho (16 years in prison), accused of being the author of the shooting, businessman Urbano de Carvalho Malta (14 years in prison) and butcher Marcos Vinícius Pereira Xavier ( 14 years in prison). The latter two were accused of participating in the planning of the murder.

Retired PM sergeant Djalma Gomes da Silva, accused of articulating the murder with the other defendants, was acquitted. According to the Public Ministry, he was a friend of Aguiar Filho, with whom he worked in security in Sampaio.

Convicts will have to serve sentences in a closed regime and their arrest was decreed, at the end of the popular jury, by Judge Lourival Machado da Costa, who presided over the session. The magistrate ordered Interpol to arrest Xavier in Portugal, from where he was interrogated by videoconference. He moved to Europe after the crime.

The Prosecutor’s Office highlighted a comment by Valério Luiz about the possible dismissal of Sampaio from the board of the football team. The journalist reportedly said that “in the movies, when the boat is sinking, the rats are the first to jump out”.

In retaliation, according to the complaint, the board of Atlético-GO banned journalists from entering the club. The criticism was made on June 17, 2012, 18 days before the crime.

“The crime was premeditated and with the manifest purpose of silencing the victim, who exercised his freedom of expression as a sports journalist and criticized the defendant as a football club manager. The defendant exercised his influence and economic power to achieve his attempt to silence the victim”, reads an excerpt from the sentence.

The decision also highlights that Aguiar Filho, as a PM, would have a legal obligation to act as a guarantor of public safety. “On the contrary, the defendant used his training as a military policeman, his expertise with weapons, to execute the victim on a public road in a vile way.”

According to the complaint, on the date of the crime, Aguiar Filho went to Xavier’s establishment. The butcher lent a motorcycle, helmet and shirt to the PM, in addition to keeping the gun and cell phone that would be used in the murder in his butcher shop. The phone chips used in communication were enabled in third-party names.

On the day of the crime, Aguiar Filho went to Xavier’s butcher shop, took his motorcycle, helmet, T-shirt, telephone and gun and headed to the vicinity of the radio station. There, he communicated with Malta, waiting for the moment when the journalist would leave. The victim was killed when she was already inside her vehicle, at the end of a workday.

Sampaio’s lawyer, Thales Jayme said that there is no material evidence against his client. According to him, the possible lack of evidence caused the delay in the completion of the trial.

Lawyer Ricardo Naves, who defends Malta, Aguiar Filho e Silva, said that public opinion generated baggage that may have “influenced the Sentencing Council”. Naves considered “incoherent” the only acquittal in the case.

Lawyer Rogério de Paula, who represents the defendant residing in Portugal, said that his client is expected to be extradited, but stressed that he will file an appeal for him to respond in freedom.

The victim’s son, lawyer Valério Luiz Filho, who served as an assistant to the prosecution with the Prosecutor’s Office, said that there is a possibility of appealing so that the sentences of the accused are increased. “They were average sentences. My intention is that they get as many as possible. Appeal is a possibility.”

adjournments

Until it was held, the jury was adjourned four times. The defendants became defendants in March 2013, and the indictment decision, which sent them to the Jury Court, was handed down by the Goiás Court in August 2014.

On June 23, 2020, the jury was postponed for the first time due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

A new session was scheduled for March 14, 2022, but Sampaio’s then-lawyer dropped the case. Therefore, it was necessary to postpone for a new defender to be appointed and to become aware of the case.

The third time, on the 2nd of May, Sampaio’s new lawyers left the plenary, alleging that Judge Lourival Machado was not impartial to preside over the session. Defense appeals against the magistrate were denied.

In the session scheduled for June 14, a juror felt sick on the second day of the trial and, therefore, the jury was dissolved.

The jury that resulted in the four convictions ended at 11:59 pm this Wednesday and, in total, lasted 38 hours, divided between the three days, with witness statements, interrogations of the defendants and debates between the prosecution and defense.

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