On January 26, 2022, HermÃnio Silves, editor of the privately owned news website the Santiago Magazine, was declared a formal suspect in a criminal investigation in connection with his reporting on an investigation into whether officers, allegedly led by the current minister of internal administration, killed a criminal suspect in 2014, according to Silves who spoke to CPJ via messaging app Earlier in January 2022, CPJ reported that Silves was under investigation for alleged violations of Article 112 of the criminal procedural code with regard to judicial secrecy, related to his reporting on the case, but this was changed as the article does not apply to journalists, according to Silvino Fernandes, Silves’ lawyer, who spoke to CPJ by phone. The investigation followed the publication of two articles, written by Silves and Almeida and published in the respective publications on December 28, 2021, and January 12, 2022, containing allegations that Paulo Rocha, the current minister of internal administration, was allegedly at the scene of a 2014 shooting that ended in the death of the suspect, in his then-capacity as deputy director of the judicial police, according to the journalists, Marques, and news reports.
© 2021 Africa Media Developmet Foundation. All Rights Reserved