The staff of Diário do Pará newspaper were assaulted by Military Police

The photographer Marco Santos and the reporter Adriana Robalo, from Diário do Pará newspaper were assaulted by a military policeman at São Braz Police Department, in Belém, Pará on 20 June. The staff were covering the deposition of military policeman Francisco Canindé da Paixão Ribeiro, who fired seven gunshots at Bruno Ricardo Bezerra Gomes, a criminal suspect.

In an interview with ABRAJI, the photographer reported that a military policeman approached when he noticed that some pictures of the accused were being taken. “He pushed my camera and touched his gun, as a sort of intimidation.  He said that the accused had not authorized the pictures”, declared the photographer. 

The photographer filed a police report at Police Division 8 of Icoaraci, Belém.

Canindé was with Alberto de Araújo, another military policeman, both of them suspect of homicide. In an official note, the Public Relations Department of the Military Police of Pará stated:

“The military police detained in flagrant the policemen suspect of homicide. They were booked and now wait for the Judicial Power. In addition, such military policemen will be submitted to a Disciplinary Council ruled by an specific military legislation, whose maximum punishment could result in the expulsion of them from the military staff. Besides, the military institution is totally against any attempt to the freedom of the press, therefore they immediately initiate the disciplinary procedures to investigate the possibility of an inappropriate behavior of their staff”.