Prosecutors in Rio de Janeiro have appealed a court decision that acquitted seven defendants accused of burning down the Niño do Ourobo Club, as Flamengo President Jorge Hilal’s training center is known.
The fire, which broke out in February 2019, killed ten teenagers and caused physical injuries to three others. They were all young athletes from the club and were staying on site.
The appeal was signed by prosecutors from Gaedest (Specialized Working Group for the Defense of Integrity and Suppression of Tax Evasion) and the Prosecutor’s Office of the 36th Criminal Court of the capital.
According to prosecutors, the tragedy was the result of a series of negligence and omissions on the part of managers, engineers and technical managers, who had a duty to ensure safe accommodation conditions, which characterize intentional guilt.
According to them, the lack of a permit, various notifications from the Public Ministry and fines from the Rio City Council indicate that the installation was secret, illegal and dangerous.
As for the Public Ministry, those responsible for the Ninho do Orobo are obliged to provide suitable accommodation, with flame retardant materials, emergency exits, maintenance of air conditioning units and a sufficient number of monitors to ensure the safety and well-being of teenagers.
In October, Judge Tiago Fernández de Barros of the 36th Criminal Court of Rio de Janeiro acquitted seven people accused of arson.
The acquittal was based on “the failure to prove criminally relevant guilt and the impossibility of establishing a secure causal relationship between individual conduct and arson.”
The Public Prosecution requested the conviction of the seven defendants after listening to 40 witnesses in the long criminal investigation that lasted four years since the case was referred to court in January 2021.
11 people were brought to court, but charges against two of the defendants were rejected because they were not linked to the incident. Another was summarily acquitted on the grounds that his actions did not contribute to the crime, and the fourth, former Flamengo president Eduardo Bandeira de Mello – now 72 – had reached the age stipulated in the penal code that gave him the right to reduce his sentence, triggering the statute of limitations.
The accused who were acquitted were people who held intervention positions in the anti-terrorism zone, and were responsible for the containers designated to house teenagers as well as for the maintenance of air conditioning units.
The families of the ten boys protested after the Rio de Janeiro court’s decision to acquit the seven defendants in the case.
In a statement, the Association of Relatives of the Victims of the Ninho do Ourobo Fire, which brings together mothers, fathers, siblings and other relatives of the victims, said the acquittal represented a “serious insult to the memory of the victims and the feelings of the entire community.”
The text adds: “The acquittal of the accused, on the basis that it was not possible to single out artistic behavior or prove the existence of a criminal causal relationship, renews in us the feeling of impunity and weakens the mechanism for protecting the lives and safety of minors in sports entities.”
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