14. According to the complaint, as a result of Nogueira’s work and NGO pressure, a Special Federal Commission was established to investigate crimes committed by the Golden Boys. The Special Commission heard over 100 witnesses, investigated about 30 cases, filed seven prosecutorial indictments against members of the Golden Boys, filed two indictments against Pinto, and issued two reports, finding civil police agents and employees of the State Secretariat for Public Security responsible for all the crimes investigated. 15. The complaint states that by August 7, 1995, the Public Prosecutor’s Office finally indicted Ranulfo and Fernandes for their criminal activities and requested their pre-trial detention, which was ordered. However, Ranulfo was released four months later, and Fernandes has been allowed to leave prison on numerous occasions. 16. The complaint points out that after the report of December 18, 1995, 10 the Special Commission was disbanded and the cases were effectively dropped due to the apparent lack of institutional support within the state apparatus and due to death threats against prosecutors, discouraging them from pursuing the cases. To date, no one has been convicted for any of the crimes investigated by the Special Commission. B. Specific Violations Alleged in the Complaint 17. According to the complaint, attorney and human rights defender Gilson Nogueira spearheaded investigations into the previously mentioned cases of torture and murder committed by police officers under the authority of the Deputy Secretary of Public Security, Maurilio Pinto de Medeiros (Pinto). Nogueira provided legal assistance to the surviving relatives and victims of state sponsored torture, murder, and other human rights violations attributed to the Golden Boys. In addition, Nogueira pressed the public prosecutors’ office to conduct independent investigations into police-led death squad activities in Natal, and he served as Assistant to the Prosecution in several of these cases. 11 Nogueira also exposed the climate of impunity in Natal that allowed the Golden Boys to repeatedly escape prosecution for criminal acts. 18. The complaint alleges that as a result of attorney Nogueira’s efforts to expose police violence, his was the first name on a “hit list.” 12 In addition, he received death threats, which he reported to federal authorities during a hearing organized by the Federal Human Rights Commission in Brasilia on August 14, and 15, 1995. 19. The complaint notes that as a result of this hearing, Nogueira received federal police protection, which began on September 6, 1995. However, this protection was withdrawn on June 3, 1996. 20. According to the complaint, on October 20, 1996, in the state of Rio Grande do Norte, Nogueira was gunned down outside of his home just after midnight. The complaint indicates that seventeen bullets were fired at Nogueira by three hit-men in a red Volkswagen Golf, license plate number KCP171Z, which had been reported stolen from its owner, Bruno Netto Ferraz, three weeks earlier. According to the complaint, medical exams established that Nogueira’s wounds were caused by rounds fired from a twelve-shooter shotgun and a 9-mm. rifle. 21. The complaint alleges that the three hit men fled the scene and burned the stolen vehicle in an attempt to destroy forensic evidence. 10 In this report the Commission stated that the civil police under investigation formed part of the Golden Boys death squad, an informal vigilante group tied directly to the Deputy Secretariat for Public Security. 11 According to the petitioners, Articles 268-273 of the Brazilian Code of Criminal Procedure allow the victim or the immediate family to appoint an Assistant to the Prosecution. The petitioners contend that this is one of the methods used by human rights organizations and those with sufficient economic resources to pressure Brazil’s notoriously slow judicial system into quicker action. This individual (who may also be the victim) can propose arguments about the evidence, request questions to be put to witnesses, participate in the oral debate in the case, and participate in the appeals made by the public prosecutor’s office or advance his or her own appeals. 12 The Commission asked the State to take precautionary measures to protect those threatened persons, as described in this admissibility report, in the section entitled Request for Precautionary Measures. 3