Two British tourists face terrible conditions of Brazil's Cell Zero-Zero - The Guardian, uk - link (aqui)

• Women denied bail and held with murder suspects
• Graduates 'nervous' after charge of insurance scam

• Tom Phillips in Rio de Janeiro
• guardian.co.uk, Friday 31 July 2009 19.07 BST

When British tourists Shanti Andrews and Rebecca Turner touched down in Brazil earlier this month on the last leg of a nine-month world tour, they came in search of sun, sand and samba.

Instead the 23-year-old law graduates ended up in "Cell Zero-Zero", a damp and overcrowded jail on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro, home to nearly 150 Brazilian prisoners accused of drug trafficking, robbery and murder.

The two former Sussex University students, who were due to fly home last Monday, told police they had been robbed while travelling to Rio from Foz do Iguacu, a popular tourist destination on Brazil's border with Paraguay and Argentina.

Police records show that among the £1,000 worth of property the women said had been robbed was an Apple iPod Touch, a Canon 8015 NUS camera, and a laptop.

According to reports in the Brazilian press, the police immediately suspected something was wrong since the two women still had their passports. The police asked to be taken to the beachside hostel where the women were staying and, inside, they claim to have found the belongings that had supposedly been stolen in the women's hostel's lockers. Rio's tourist police say the "luggage trick", by which tourists pretend to have been robbed in order to claim on insurance, is a growing trend in this seaside city.

"It's another way of financing your trip," said a European tourist who admitted to filing a fake police report at the same station in Rio in order to claim on insurance. "It's one hour at the station in exchange for €700-800. That's an air fare."

Andrews and Turner were taken to a holding jail in Mesquita, a rundown neighbourhood on the city's western outskirts. There the women, who do not speak Portuguese, were photographed before being locked up alongside dozens of impoverished Brazilian prisoners. According to the jail's warden, the majority of the prisoners are drug mules who were caught smuggling cocaine, marijuana and crack into other prisons for their husbands.

"They are being treated like any other Brazilian prisoner," said one of the British girls' lawyers, Eduardo Tonini, as he walked to Casa Parana, a nearby supermarket that is stocked with everything a prisoner could want: toothpaste, disposable razors, toilet paper and chocolate bars. Tonini bought a coconut cake, four chocolate and vanilla bars, and a roll of toilet paper. "They are not eating. They are very nervous," he said. "They are sleeping on the floor. They have to sleep on their sides because there is no room. These are the terrible conditions of the Brazilian prison system."

When the Guardian visited the Polinter jail, Andrews and Turner declined to be interviewed, saying they would talk only after being released.

"I'm the one taking care of them," a prisoner who identified herself as Auntie Claudia said through a small opening in the cell's metal door. On the wall behind her, prisoners had scrawled the letters CV, the insignia of the Rio drug faction the Red Command, or Comando Vermelho.

Carlos Pereira Araujo, a prison guard, tried to put a brave face on conditions inside Polinter, where exposed wires hang from the ceilings and a broken typewriter, pieces of a photocopy machine and two stray dogs adorn the entrance. "The food is great here: rice, beans and a bit of meat. Here it is total luxury," he said.

But Araujo later admitted: "It is super-full here. There's no space. People sleep on the floor."

Under Brazilian law, prisoners with a university degree have the right to special accommodation, away from "common prisoners". But Rio authorities say they have yet to receive proof that the pair graduated from Sussex University in 2007.

Yesterday, as a judge rejected a bail request and authorities prepared to transfer the women to the Bangu prison, home to some of Brazil's most dangerous criminals, lawyers representing the pair continued to insist their clients were innocent.

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HC concedido

Fonte: www.conjur.com.br (Consultor Jurídico)

TJ-RJ concede HC a inglesas acusadas de golpe

Por Marina Ito

Apenas o fato de ser estrangeiro não justifica a manutenção de custódia cautelar. Com base nesse entendimento, o desembargador Sérgio Verani, presidente da 5ª Câmara Criminal do Tribunal de Justiça do Rio de Janeiro, concedeu Habeas Corpus às inglesas acusadas de estelionato, Shanti Simone Andrews e Rebecca Clair Turner.

"Na hipótese de eventual condenação, a imposição da pena privativa de liberdade seria uma possibilidade remotíssima", disse Verani em sua decisão (clique aqui para ler). Isso porque a pena para tentativa de estelionato é de um a cinco anos, com redução de um a dois terços.

"Inexistindo a mínima indicação sobre a necessidade da prisão preventiva, defiro a liminar", escreveu o desembargador. Ele determinou a expedição de alvará de soltura, desde que as duas se comprometam a se apresentar na audiência marcada para o dia 5 de agosto. O desembargador também mandou oficiar a Polícia Federal.

O juiz Flávio Itabaiana de Oliveira Nicolau, da 27ª Vara Criminal do Rio de Janeiro, havia mantido a prisão das advogadas. Contra essa decisão, as inglesas, representadas pelos advogados Renato Tonini e Sérgio Pita, entraram com HC no TJ fluminense (clique aqui para ler o pedido).

"Como se vislumbra da leitura da decisão aqui atacada, há apenas uma suposição, e essa suposição não pode ter o alcance dado pelo magistrado, ou seja, a de impor tamanho sofrimento pela prática de algo que só tomou vulto pelo fato de serem cidadãs britânicas", afirmaram os advogados no HC.

Segundo denúncia do MP, as duas procuraram a Delegacia de Atendimento ao Turista para registrar uma queixa. As advogadas preencherem um comunicado de furto para a confecção do registro de ocorrência. Relataram que objetos, como dois celulares, uma câmera fotográfica de R$ 300 e US$ 50 em espécie foram furtados. Segundo o MP, os policiais desconfiaram das duas. “Os policiais ficaram surpresos com o fato das denunciadas estarem com seus passaportes e demais documentos que lhe permitiriam viajar para seus países de origem a qualquer momento”, afirma o MP.

Com base nesses indícios, explica o Ministério Público, os policiais e as inglesas foram até o albergue Stone Of The Beach, onde elas se hospedavam, e junto com um funcionário do local, Marcus Vinicius Silva Ribeiro, localizaram os objetos descritos pelas duas em gavetas trancadas por cadeado, que apenas ela tinham as chaves. Segundo o promotor, isso revela que as inglesas “inseriram informação falsa em documento público sobre fato juridicamente relevante”.

Em primeira instância, o juiz entendeu que a entrega dos passaportes das duas não é suficiente para revogar a prisão em flagrante. Para ele, ficar sem o passaporte não as impede de sair do país, pois ainda podem “obter na Embaixada Britânica outro passaporte ou qualquer documento equivalente que lhes assegure o direito de viajar”. “Em virtude de serem nacionais do Reino Unido da Grã-Bretanha e residirem na Inglaterra, as rés, em liberdade, poderão retornar ao país de origem e, consequentemente, se furtar à eventual aplicação da lei penal”, disse o juiz na ocasião.

Processo 2009.059.05782

Clique aqui para ler a decisão e aqui para ler o pedido de liminar.