São Paulo - In 1992 there was a rebellion at the infamous Carandiru prison in São Paulo (since then the prison has been deactivated; it was imploded in 2002 to make way for a park). Led by a coronel of the Polícia Militar, Ubiratan Guimarães, law enforcement agents invaded one of the prison buildings with the result that 111 prisoners were killed. Coronel Guimarães went to trial for the deaths of 102 of the prisoners, was found guilty by a jury and sentenced to 632 years in jail. Because he did not have a criminal record, coronel Guimarães did not go to jail while he appealed the case.

Yesterday the case was heard by an appellate court (Tribunal de Justiça de São Paulo), which voted 20 to 2 to exculpate the coronel.

"Once again it has been shown that what we always said is the truth. It has been proved that we were just doing our duty," said Guimarães after the decision was announced. "We did not want to kill anybody. We wanted to save lives and we did save a lot of lives. We did not give orders to kill. On the contrary, the order was to save the lives of those caught in the crossfire and reestablish order."

Asked why so many people died, the coronel declared that he was forced to defend himself and his men. "There were more than 2,200 inmates, most of them in open rebellion. They confronted the police and we had to defend ourselves," he said.

Under Brazilian law it is quite possible that the case will be appealed again and go back to court.

Translation: Allen Bennett