The twelve Brazilian Muslims being held in the federal prison of Campo Grande in Mato Grosso do Sul since July 22 are doing well given the circumstances, the lawyer of three of them told me in an exclusive interview this week.
“They are Muslims, so they are taking in their stride, and view it as a challenge from Allah,” Muslim Ronaldo Vaz de Oliveira told me in a phone interview. “I’ve already gone twice to the prison to visit my clients.”
Oliveira is the lawyer of Vitor Abdullah Magalhaes, Muhammad Zakaria and Levy Ribeiro. They and nine other Muslim Brazilians were arrested by the federal police last month in an operation called “Hashtag” for posting pro-Daesh statements on the Internet and allegedly trying to buy a weapon to prepare for a terror attack. Many here believe that the authorities decided to arrest the men just before the Rio Olympics started to show the Americans and the Brazilian public that they were doing something to beef up security.
Oliveira told me that he was only able to meet his clients for the first time on Aug. 1, or exactly 10 days after they had been arrested. Brazil passed an anti-terror law in March of this year, and the Ministry of Justice recently passed a regulation saying that newly arrested prisoners in federal prisons could be kept incommunicado for up to 10 days from their initial arrest date.
“They are being held in individual cells, and were not allowed to take a sun bath for the first 20 days that they were imprisoned. But I must say that the conditions in the prison, since it is a federal one, are much better than in regular jails,” the lawyer explained. Most Brazilians jails are notoriously overcrowded and dirty. Oliveira said he thinks the prisoners may be released on Aug. 22. Under the anti-terror law, suspects can be held for 30 days, renewable for another 30 days if the authorities deem it necessary. He admitted that they may be required to wear electronic bracelets to monitor their movements and banned from coming close to stadiums, airports, bus stations and other sensitive areas. Another Brazilian Muslim suspect has already been required to wear an electronic bracelet after authorities suspected him of being involved with a terror group.
“It is easy to arrest those with a fixed address and full-time jobs, while they are unable to arrest notorious drug dealers in Rio de Janeiro,” Oliveira told me in reference to the recent deadly attack on National Force soldiers in a slum in Rio de Janeiro, who were shot by drug traffickers when they took a wrong turn into the area.
Magalhaes studied Arabic in Cairo for six months along with seven other Brazilian Muslims in 2013, all of whom received scholarships to do so. When I asked about a photograph that has surfaced of Magalhaes and three other Brazilians holding up the Daesh flag and holding their index fingers up, the lawyer tried to minimize the fact by saying that Daesh was only just beginning then and had not reached the notoriety it has today.
Although the anti-terror law says that simply liking a terror group, or sympathizing with one, is not a crime, it is obviously a very thin line between just liking a group like Daesh and starting to plan a terror attack against Americans and French athletes at the Olympics.
But it is also disturbing to note that local press coverage has had tones of Islamophobia and that many Brazilians were very quick to condemn the 12 suspects and convict them in the court of public opinion of being terrorists before they had even been questioned or tried in a court of law.
Brazilian Justice Minister Alexandre Moraes met with Muslim community leaders in Sao Paulo this week and called on Brazilians not to confuse Islam and its peaceful followers with a small group of terrorists. But that call seems to have little effect on part of the Brazilian public, with the National Union of Islamic Entities in Brazil reporting a spike in attacks against Muslims following the arrest of the 12 suspects. One of the victims was a woman wearing hijab in Rio, who was physically attacked in Copacabana recently. “Truthfully speaking we are Brazilians, we are nearly 1.5 million Brazilian Muslims in the country living here for generations,” said Ali Hussein Taha, the president of the union, on Aug. 8 after the meeting with the justice minister to try and find ways to stop the scapegoating of Muslims in Brazil.
I think interim President Michel Temer, of Christian Lebanese descent, should visit a large mosque in Sao Paulo and give a speech stating how the government and Brazilian people are not against Islam and Muslims. This would go a long way to ease tensions and perhaps dissuade ignorant and hateful people from lashing out at all Muslims and Islam. And the 12 suspects should be given their constitutionally guaranteed right to defend themselves. Only then will Brazil be protecting itself from potential terror attacks without trampling on the rights of its own citizens.
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The writer is a Saudi journalist based in Brazil.
“They are Muslims, so they are taking in their stride, and view it as a challenge from Allah,” Muslim Ronaldo Vaz de Oliveira told me in a phone interview. “I’ve already gone twice to the prison to visit my clients.”
Oliveira is the lawyer of Vitor Abdullah Magalhaes, Muhammad Zakaria and Levy Ribeiro. They and nine other Muslim Brazilians were arrested by the federal police last month in an operation called “Hashtag” for posting pro-Daesh statements on the Internet and allegedly trying to buy a weapon to prepare for a terror attack. Many here believe that the authorities decided to arrest the men just before the Rio Olympics started to show the Americans and the Brazilian public that they were doing something to beef up security.
Oliveira told me that he was only able to meet his clients for the first time on Aug. 1, or exactly 10 days after they had been arrested. Brazil passed an anti-terror law in March of this year, and the Ministry of Justice recently passed a regulation saying that newly arrested prisoners in federal prisons could be kept incommunicado for up to 10 days from their initial arrest date.
“They are being held in individual cells, and were not allowed to take a sun bath for the first 20 days that they were imprisoned. But I must say that the conditions in the prison, since it is a federal one, are much better than in regular jails,” the lawyer explained. Most Brazilians jails are notoriously overcrowded and dirty. Oliveira said he thinks the prisoners may be released on Aug. 22. Under the anti-terror law, suspects can be held for 30 days, renewable for another 30 days if the authorities deem it necessary. He admitted that they may be required to wear electronic bracelets to monitor their movements and banned from coming close to stadiums, airports, bus stations and other sensitive areas. Another Brazilian Muslim suspect has already been required to wear an electronic bracelet after authorities suspected him of being involved with a terror group.
“It is easy to arrest those with a fixed address and full-time jobs, while they are unable to arrest notorious drug dealers in Rio de Janeiro,” Oliveira told me in reference to the recent deadly attack on National Force soldiers in a slum in Rio de Janeiro, who were shot by drug traffickers when they took a wrong turn into the area.
Magalhaes studied Arabic in Cairo for six months along with seven other Brazilian Muslims in 2013, all of whom received scholarships to do so. When I asked about a photograph that has surfaced of Magalhaes and three other Brazilians holding up the Daesh flag and holding their index fingers up, the lawyer tried to minimize the fact by saying that Daesh was only just beginning then and had not reached the notoriety it has today.
Although the anti-terror law says that simply liking a terror group, or sympathizing with one, is not a crime, it is obviously a very thin line between just liking a group like Daesh and starting to plan a terror attack against Americans and French athletes at the Olympics.
But it is also disturbing to note that local press coverage has had tones of Islamophobia and that many Brazilians were very quick to condemn the 12 suspects and convict them in the court of public opinion of being terrorists before they had even been questioned or tried in a court of law.
Brazilian Justice Minister Alexandre Moraes met with Muslim community leaders in Sao Paulo this week and called on Brazilians not to confuse Islam and its peaceful followers with a small group of terrorists. But that call seems to have little effect on part of the Brazilian public, with the National Union of Islamic Entities in Brazil reporting a spike in attacks against Muslims following the arrest of the 12 suspects. One of the victims was a woman wearing hijab in Rio, who was physically attacked in Copacabana recently. “Truthfully speaking we are Brazilians, we are nearly 1.5 million Brazilian Muslims in the country living here for generations,” said Ali Hussein Taha, the president of the union, on Aug. 8 after the meeting with the justice minister to try and find ways to stop the scapegoating of Muslims in Brazil.
I think interim President Michel Temer, of Christian Lebanese descent, should visit a large mosque in Sao Paulo and give a speech stating how the government and Brazilian people are not against Islam and Muslims. This would go a long way to ease tensions and perhaps dissuade ignorant and hateful people from lashing out at all Muslims and Islam. And the 12 suspects should be given their constitutionally guaranteed right to defend themselves. Only then will Brazil be protecting itself from potential terror attacks without trampling on the rights of its own citizens.
—
The writer is a Saudi journalist based in Brazil.
