Retired army colonel who acknowledged he tortured and killed political prisoners during Brazil's 1964-1985 military regime was murdered in his home outside Rio de Janeiro, police told local news media on Saturday, according to Reuters.
Citing the victim's widow, police inspector Fabio Salvadorete told the UOL news portal that Paulo Malhães was suffocated to death on Thursday by three men who broke into his house and stole two computers and some of the antique guns he collected, Reuters reported.
Malhães said that at the time he did not regret his actions which he justified saying "they were guerrillas and enemies of the state," Reuters reported. Malhães was the first member of the Armed Forces to openly acknowledge that he tortured, killed and hid the bodies of political prisoners.
The Truth Commission was created in 2012 and is responsible for investigating human rights abuses committed under Brazil's military regimes, but it does not have powers to prosecute anyone because of a 1979 amnesty law that released civilians and the military from liability for politically motivated crimes committed during the dictatorship, according to Reuters. It can, however, reveal the abuses and the names of those who committed them.
Last month, Malhães gave Brazil's National Truth Commission a detailed account of how he participated in the abduction, torture and killing of political prisoners, adding that he also helped in the "disappearance" of the bodies, Reuters reported.
The Truth Commission said in a statement it has asked the federal police to help investigate Malhães' murder and determine if it is linked to what he said last month, according to Reuters.
Unlike Argentina, Chile and Uruguay, which also had repressive military regimes, Brazil has never punished military officials accused of human rights abuses, Reuters reported.
Victoria Grabois, head of the Rio de Janeiro-based activist group Torture Never Again, told reporters that as a result of Malhães killing "other torturers may refuse to explain what took place during the military dictatorship,: according to Reuters.
