Brazil prison riot: Four inmates die during journey to new jail

Prisoners allegedly involved in the killing of other inmates being transported
AP
Katy Clifton31 July 2019

Four inmates allegedly involved in a deadly prison riot in Brazil have died of suffocation while being transported to a different jail, security officials have said.

The Para state public security office said the inmates were discovered dead when the prison vehicle arrived in the town of Maraba on Wednesday.

A spokesman said the vehicle had four compartments and was carrying 30 handcuffed inmates.

They were all suspected of involvement in a five-hour clash between gangs at the Altamira prison on Monday that killed at least 58 inmates.

The Regional Recovery Center, a prison, in Altamira
AP

Authorities say the four who died were from the same gang and they are investigating the case.

The prisoners were among 46 being sent to other prisons, including stricter federal ones.

Local authorities confirmed late on Tuesday that at least 33 inmates had been moved to the state capital of Belem, from where they would be sent to other jails.

Prisoners are escorted during transfer to a federal jail
REUTERS

Only 15 of the bodies from the riot had been released to family members by Tuesday evening.

Workers at the coroner's office said they were slowed by the small size of the facility as well as problems with lighting that meant they had to stop working at 6.30pm.

Dozens of frustrated family members spent the day waiting outside the morgue, and forensic expert Marcel Ferreira said some passed out when called on to identify the bodies of beheaded loved ones.

Relatives of inmates wait for information about their loved ones
AFP/Getty Images

Sixteen of the inmates had been decapitated.

State officials said clashes erupted in Altamira when the local Comando Classe A gang attacked a wing of the prison holding members of the rival Comando Vermelho, or Red Command.

In many of Brazil's prisons, badly outnumbered guards struggle to retain control over an ever-growing population of inmates, with jailed gang leaders often able to run their criminal activities from behind bars.

Comando Classe A members allegedly set fire to the temporary containers where inmates belonging to Red Command were being held while construction of another wing was underway.

A crowd of people outside a prison in Altamira
EPA

Most of the victims died of asphyxiation.

"This is clearly a declaration of war on the Red Command," said Jean-Francois Deluchey, adjunct professor in political science at the Federal University of Para who has been studying the region for 20 years.

Authorities have not yet revealed the exact motive for the clash, only confirming that it was a fight between criminal groups.

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