Where: Brazil, more specifically, São Paulo, capital
Business involved: huge Brazilian company "Yoki". Also General Mills, American.
What: CEO Marcos Kitano Matsunaga (grandson of the founder) did not want Yoki to be sold. He was kidnapped on May 20. General Mills issues press release on May 24 announcing 'definitive' deal. Police keeps case secret till June 4. Newspapers, on June 5, say police officers had been under investigation. Brazil has just passed Public Open Access to Information Law. Mr. Jorge Carrasco, head of civil police homicide department (DHPP), takes over the case and declares it a 'passion crime'. Such a turn in the case led to people totally forgetting the previous investigations concerning police officers.
Human rights violations: Mr. Carrasco, bearing no proofs or justifications, arrested Marcos Matsunaga's widow on June 4, the day before the case reached the papers. She: Elize Ramos Araujo Kitano Matsunaga, formally married to Marcos and mother by him of a one-year old girl, brought up by the couple. Elize was born in a very small town in the south of the country (Chopinzinho, state of Paraná). Her family is humble. I include this to make the point that, in Brazil, the powerful 'buy' whatever in total disregard of the less privileged. Business as usual.
Police fraud: Mr. Carrasco rushed to produce 'proof' so as to keep Elize in jail. She had no lawyer. Videos of a woman showing her back all the time are aired to exhaustion as 'proof' that Elize cut up all of Marcos's body alone in their own ap - and while the baby girl was there, cared by a nanny - and put all the parts in three suitcases. The image shows just this: the back of a woman said to be Elize surrounded by three pieces of luggage (never to be found) alone in an elevator. No proof was presented by the police: no gun (Marcos was shot in the head), no knife, none of the suitcases. Marcos's parents and relatives were not said to testify. No secretaries, no workmates. Mr. Carrasco called a religious leader cause the lawyer of the rich Matsunaga family saw in his words a way to argue the crime was planned. The effort is to lead to the longest prison sentence ever, so Elize has no chance to come back to the world and talk to someone. She has been isolated since Mr. Carrasco picked her up in her flat and led her to a police station (June 4). And then to prison (same day). Her imprisonment was renewed (June 12) by a judge that, on June 14, passed the case forward, arguing the jurisdiction was not his.
Public uproar - the TV campaign led to the effect expected by Mr. Carrasco: by the end of the week (June 8), everyone was convinced Elize was that kind of 'monstrous' woman that coldly did all 'that'. After all, she confessed. Most people, even in the huge city of São Paulo, do not even know what a square (Math) is. Start by asking McDonald's attendants as I have done and confirm. Such public took 'she confessed' as unquestionable truth (aired on June 6). Mr. Carrasco himself was then quoted in the papers saying Elize had no lawyer. She could not talk to anybody, we repeat. He rushed back to the couple's flat, despite the fact it was a national holiday (June 7, Corpus Christi). Mr. Carrasco promptly declared the reconstruction of the crime carried out confirmed 100% the version in Elize's 'confession' and, besides, proved she did all by herself; no-one's help at all. Before the forensic report was issued (on 13.6), Mr. Carrasco slipped off the case, and Mr. Dias (also from DHPP) took over, just to send the incongruous - but huge - report (532 pages) to the Ministério Público that... promptly accepted the police investigations and accused Elize of a three-fold qualified crime.
The forensic report - The IML report adds a cut of the throat while Marco's was still alive, for he definitely breathed blood. The path of the bullet also contradicted 'Elize's confession' - and thus Carrasco's operation over the holiday. But people are not that smart and the papers have dropped Carrasco from the articles. So a major paper (Folha de S.Paulo) put it that 'the version of Elize's defense' proved wrong. Yes, Elize did not even have any defense. Mr. Luciano Santoro was placed as her lawyer only after the point of 'general public convincement' had been reached. Mr. Santoro did not touch at all on what was said before and only talked about the motivations of the crime. As now the version is proved impossible, and the 'defense' is to blame, Mr. Santoro has denied further press interviews.
Further away - An aunt from Paraná is reported to be in the couple's flat (penthouse) and, with a nanny, is taking care of the baby. But this aunt has not been with Elize. No one of her trust has. Yesterday (21.6) Elize was said to have been transferred to Tremembé jail, more than a hundred km away from the center.
Twitter - Since June 6, we have been reporting the fraud and Elize's innocence. On June 15, we contact, on the twitter, the archbishop of São Paulo, Dom Odilo Scherer, and asked for his attention to the case.
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