(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is a 22 April 2003 IAPA press release: IAPA to submit case of Brazilian journalist missing for 12 years to IACHR MIAMI, Florida (April 22, 2003) – Today marks the 12th anniversary of the disappearance of Brazilian journalist Ivan Rocha, a case recently investigated by the Inter American Press Association (IAPA). […]
(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is a 22 April 2003 IAPA press release:
IAPA to submit case of Brazilian journalist missing for 12 years to IACHR
MIAMI, Florida (April 22, 2003) – Today marks the 12th anniversary of the disappearance of Brazilian journalist Ivan Rocha, a case recently investigated by the Inter American Press Association (IAPA). Numerous irregularities were found in the legal process that concluded in 1994.
Rocha hosted the radio program “A voz de Ivan Rocha” (Ivan Rocha’s voice), broadcast by Alvorada AM, in the city of Teixeira de Freitas, at the southern tip of Bahia state, Brazil. The day before his disappearance, he announced he planned to hand over to a judge visiting the area documentation he said contained information about organized crime and the participation of local officials in death squads in Bahia. Ten journalists were murdered in the region between 1991 and 1997.
On grounds that the case was rife with irregularities and that all local legal recourses have been exhausted, the IAPA will submit the findings of its investigation to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), so that those responsible for Rocha’s disappearance do not go unpunished.
In interviews with the IAPA’s Rapid Response Unit, the police detective who handled initial inquiries into Rocha’s disappearance alleged that he had been subjected to pressure. The district
attorney who handled the case and Rocha’s friends and family members have received threats. The judge who sentenced defendants in the case stated that “there was pressure and attempts to take over the proceedings.”
According to a witness who later changed his testimony, presumably under threat, Rocha, 33, was forced into a car as he was walking near a vacant lot. His whereabouts have been unknown since April 22, 1991. In 1994, those who had been charged in the case were released and the case was closed. There was no trace of the journalist, no body had been found nor had evidence been produced.
For more information on this case, which was investigated by the IAPA’s Rapid Response Unit, and 16 others already submitted to the IACHR, visit the Web site: www.impunidad.com
