Jury finds 23 Brazilian officers guilty over 1992 jail deaths

Police to appeal finding over riot at Sao Paulo’s Carandiru prison that left 111 inmates dead

File picture of a riot at Vila Velha prison  in Brazil's eastern state of Espirito do Santo in 1997. A jury has found 23 Brazilian police officers guilty of killing 13 inmates during the 1992 riot at Sao Paulo’s Carandiru prison. Photograph: Gazeta de Vitoria/Reuters
File picture of a riot at Vila Velha prison in Brazil's eastern state of Espirito do Santo in 1997. A jury has found 23 Brazilian police officers guilty of killing 13 inmates during the 1992 riot at Sao Paulo’s Carandiru prison. Photograph: Gazeta de Vitoria/Reuters

A jury has found 23 Brazilian police officers guilty of killing 13 inmates during the 1992 riot at Sao Paulo's Carandiru prison that left 111 inmates dead.

Three officers were acquitted in the case.

Judge Jose Augusto Marzagao sentenced each of those convicted to prison terms of 156 years.

No one can serve more than 30 years in prison under Brazilian law. Their attorney has filed an appeal.

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The officers had originally been charged with killing 15 inmates, but prosecutors said two of those prisoners were stabbed to death by fellow inmates.

The officers are free pending the outcome of their appeal.

Another 79 officers will be tried in the coming months in connection with the killings at the now-defunct prison.

AP