Court accepts charges against men accused of killing Moïse

A Rio de Janeiro court has accepted the charges submitted by state prosecutors against the three men accused with the murder of Moïse Kabagambe, a young Congolese immigrant brutally beaten to death at a beach kiosk in the district of Barra da Tijuca, western Rio de Janeiro, on January 24.

The motion relates the barbarity of the crime, with death resulting from chest trauma and lung injuries. The accused have declared the attacks were carried out with a piece of wood while the victim was immobilized.

“Furthermore, both the autopsy and the expert report on the scene show the victim was hit by a series of blows to the back of his chest. Also detected was bruising in the eye socket, which indicates harm to the face or base of the skull,” the motion says.

Judge Tula Correa de Mello, of the 1st Criminal Court of Rio de Janeiro city, ruled the preventive arrest of Fabio Pirineus da Silva, Aleson Cristiano de Oliveira Fonseca, and Brendon Alexander Luz da Silva, who will answer to what Brazilian law terms triply qualified homicide.

“We observe signs, therefore, that the crime was perpetrated with futile motivation and resulted from a mere argument, with the use of cruel means, considering the barbaric violent attacks. The crime was executed in such a way that the victim could not defend himself. Rather, he was knocked down and immobilized, and could not react,” the ruling reads.

Moïse’s murder is the third case of battering by the Barra da Tijuca beach in less than a month, the judge pointed out, “which casts light on the accentuated criminal audacity.”