Policeman gets 228 years for murder in Brazil

A senior Brazilian police officer was sentenced to 228 years in prison today for killing 12 landless peasants in the remote eastern Amazon in 1996.

Lieutenant colonel Mario Pantoja was jailed for 12 years for each of the peasants he killed during a protest by the Landless Farmworkers Movement in Eldorado dos Carajas.

Nearly 2,000 workers had blocked a road as part of the protest against land reform in the region. Today’s case was seen as a test of Brazil’s willingness to prosecute police officers.

However, under Brazilian law, no prisoner can serve more than 30 years in jail and first-time offenders, especially police officers, are often released early.