24 67.13. After the investigation had been dropped, Antônio Lopes, known as Carla, a friend of Gilson Nogueira de Carvalho, conducted private investigations of the homicide and sent his conclusions to the Human Rights Ombudsman of the Natal Courts. On August 3, 1998, the Ombudsman informed the representative of the Office of the Public Prosecutor of Macaíba that, in his understanding, the Ombudsman and Antônio Lopes had collected information demonstrating certain contradictions between various testimonies, as well as clues that had not been sufficiently explored, and as a result, further investigation into the case was in order.30 67.14. On August 31, 1998, the prosecuting attorney of the Office of the Public Prosecutor of Macaíba requested that the police investigation into the death of Gilson Nogueira de Carvalho be reopened in view of the fact that “the information [that had been] conveyed to the [Office of the Public Prosecutor was] truly important” and that “it merit[ed a] thorough investigation and [suggested] that the responsibility for masterminding the crime [lay] with the politicians of Macaíba.”31 67.15. On September 24, 1998, the Judge of the First Chamber of the Courts of Macaíba granted the request of the Office of the Public Prosecutor and decided that police investigation No. 296/96 on the death of Gilson Nogueira de Carvalho would be reopened and resumed.32 67.16. On November 15, 1998, a delegation of federal police officers, in another investigation separate from that of the death of Gilson Nogueira de Carvalho, executed a search and arrest warrant issued by a federal judge for the purpose of verifying the existence of a clandestine gravesite on the farm of former police officer Otávio Ernesto Moreira. During this proceeding, the Federal Police seized two 9-mm M953 sub-machine guns and a .38 caliber shotgun in the house of the former police officer, that were the property of and were intended for use by the Secretariat of Public Security and that, according to Otávio Ernesto Moreira, as a result of his own negligence had not been returned to that public institution when he retired. On the same farm, investigators also found a Glock .380-caliber pistol and a Remington 12-gauge shotgun. At that time, Otávio Ernesto Moreira was being held in preventive custody.33 67.17. Otávio Ernesto Moreira is a retired civil police officer; for many years, including at the time of the death of Gilson Nogueira de Carvalho, he worked in the Secretariat of Public Security of the State of Rio Grande do Norte, directly under the orders of Deputy Secretary of Public Security Maurílio Pinto de Medeiros. In the setting of that institution, he would lend his shotgun to fellow officers.34 30 Cf. note No.121/97 – PJDDH by the Human Rights Ombudsman of the Court of Natal, Fernando Batista de Vasconcelos, addressed to the Prosecutor of the Courts of Macaíba, Henrique César Cavalcanti, August 3, 1998 (file of appendixes to the response to the application, Appendix 1, Volume 4, folios 3816 through 3821); and testimony given by Fernando Batista de Vasconcelos on February 8, 2006, supra note 17. 31 Cf. brief by the prosecuting attorney of the Court of Macaíba, August 31, 1998 (file of appendixes to the response to the application, Appendix 1, Volume 4, folios 3781 and 3787). 32 Cf. order by the Judge of the First Chamber of the Courts of Macaíba, September 24, 1998 (file of appendixes to the response to the application, Appendix 1, Volume 4, folio 3830). 33 Cf. warrant for the arrest en flagrante delicto of Otávio Ernesto Moreira, November 15, 1998 (file of appendixes to the response to the application, Appendix 1, Volume 4, folios 4154 through 4159). 34 Cf. statement given by Otávio Ernesto Moreira to the Federal Police on January 14, 1999 (file of appendixes to the response to the application, Appendix 1, Volume 4, folios 4203 through 4205).