The mobilization "Free Father Amaro!" (#PadreAmaroLivre) aims to make visible the intense process of criminalization against Father José Amaro Lopes, as well as demanding his freedom. The priest has been unjustly imprisoned since March 27, 2018.
Father Amaro is an agent of the Pastoral Land Commission (CPT) in Anapu and is also a member of the Santa Luzia de Anapu Parish of the Xingu Prelature in Pará. During 13 years after Dorothy Stang's death he and the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur - Congregation of which the missionary belonged - have suffered various types of attacks and threats.
The Documentation Center Dom Tomás Balduino, of the CPT, records and reports, since 2001, successive death threats against Amaro. In the same way, the legal advice of the CPT, the Pará Society for the Defense of Human Rights (SDDH) and the Prelature of Xingu, responsible for the defense of the priest, analyzed the investigation that led to the preventive detention and expressed: "Apparently, the farmers changed their strategy in relation to the father AMARO. Instead of murdering him, they found a way to demoralize him by attacking his image and criminalizing him and thus succeeding in removing him from the municipality of Anapu. "
Join this Campaign!
You mobilization is very important for Father Amaro's freedom.
Send an e-mail (model below) to the judge of the Court of Justice of the State of Pará, Vania Lucia Carvalho da Silveira, responsible for the analysis of the Habeas Corpus petition in favor of Padre Amaro.
To: sccr@tjpa.jus.br
Cc: campanhaamaro@cptnacional.org.br
Subject: HC n º 0803231-11.2018.8.14.0000 (PADRE AMARO)
Email message:
To Your Honor, judge VANIA LUCIA CARVALHO DA SILVEIRA
HC rapporteur nº 0803231-11.2018.8.14.0000
Tribunal de Justiça do Estado do Pará.
Av. Almirante Barroso n 3089 – Bairro: Souza – CEP: 66613-710 – Belém – PA.
Phone: (91) 3205-3331.
sccr@tjpa.jus.br
Honorable, Vania Lucia Carvalho da Silveira
We are aware of the redistribution to Your Honor of the HC No. 0803231-11.2018.8.14.0000, in favor of father JOSÉ AMARO LOPES, arrested in a preventive manner, by decision of the Judge of the District of Anapu (PA).
We know that Your Honor knows about the land reality that has generated serious conflicts in that municipality, resulting in dozens of deaths of peasants in recent years. On the one hand, migrant peasants in search of land to live and plant, and on the other, large landowners who illegally occupy thousands of hectares of public lands, using land grabbing and gunmen to remain by force in these properties. The murder of the missionary Dorothy Stang in February 2005 exposed this reality to Brazil and to the world. The TJPA accompanied and provided full support to the proceedings, finding the responsibles for the death of the missionary and punishing the culprits.
For giving continuity to the work of Dorothy, father AMARO became hated and persecuted by farmers and squatters of land in Anapu, many of them involved in the missionary's death in 2005. The investigation that led to the Amaro's arrest is a result of a ruse which involved more than 15 farmers from the municipality. The farmers charged Amaro with a series of accusations with a main objective: remove the religious from his activities in the municipality of Anapu.
As there is no evidence, the Public Prosecutor of Anapu ordered the suspension of the serious accusation of Sexual Harassment, made by the Civil Police of Anapu against AMARO. In fact, he is a victim of a serious violation of his private life and his privacy, contrary to the Constitution of the Republic (article 5, caput and clause X), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (articles 17 and 26) and the American Convention on Human Rights (Articles 11 and 24), as well as infra-constitutional norms. This blatant accusation caused irreparable damage to the image of father AMARO.
In our opinion, father AMARO has all the conditions to respond, in freedom, to the accusations that weighs against him. He has been parish priest in the municipality for more than 20 years and his work is recognized by national and international organizations of workers and human rights defenders.
We are sure that Your Honor, the Judge, will make JUSTICE deciding on the request made by the father AMARO defense.
Respectfully,
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