Sérgio Fernando Paranhos Fleury (19 May 1933 – 1 May 1979) was a Brazilian police deputy during the

Brazilian military dictatorship The military dictatorship in Brazil ( pt, ditadura militar) was established on 1 April 1964, after a coup d'état by the Brazilian Armed Forces, with support from the United States government, against President João Goulart. The Brazilian dict ...

. He was chief of ''DOPS'', the Brazilian "", that had a major role during the years of the

Brazilian military government The military dictatorship in Brazil ( pt, ditadura militar) was established on 1 April 1964, after a coup d'état by the Brazilian Armed Forces, with support from the United States government, against President João Goulart. The Brazilian dicta ...

. Fleury was known for his violent temper and was officially accused of

torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. Some definitions are restricted to acts c ...

and

homicide Homicide occurs when a person kills another person. A homicide requires only a volitional act or omission that causes the death of another, and thus a homicide may result from accidental, reckless, or negligent acts even if there is no inten ...

of numerous people, but died before being tried.

Activities

He became known for his participation in

and extrajudicial killings during the military regime. Several prisoner reports and witness testimonies indicate that he consistently used torture during interrogations during the time of the military regime. Fleury himself was directly involved in the torture of Tito de Alencar Lima, known as Friar Tito, a

catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

friar A friar is a member of one of the mendicant orders founded in the twelfth or thirteenth century; the term distinguishes the mendicants' itinerant apostolic character, exercised broadly under the jurisdiction of a superior general, from the ol ...

who fought against the military regime in Brazil. Besides using torture, Fleury was investigated and denounced by Prosecutors

Hélio Bicudo Hélio Pereira Bicudo (5 July 1922 – 31 July 2018) was a Brazilian jurist and politician. Biography During the term of Carvalho Pinto as Governor of São Paulo, Bicudo was the first president of the Urubupungá Electric Centrals, builders of th ...

and Dirceu de Mello for murders committed by the Death Squadron. The Public Prosecutor of São Paulo found him to be the main leader of the Death Squadron which was responsible for innumerable extrajudicial killings in Brazil. Although convicted, he did not serve time. His biography by Brazilian journalist

Percival de Souza Percival (, also spelled Perceval, Parzival), alternatively called Peredur (), was one of King Arthur's legendary Knights of the Round Table. First mentioned by the French author Chrétien de Troyes in the tale ''Perceval, the Story of the ...

, titled "Autópsia do Medo", details his involvement with torture and several extrajudicial killings. He was chosen as the deputy of the year two times, in 1974 and 1976, and received an award from the governor Abreu Sodré in 1969. He was responsible for the killing of guerrilla leader

Carlos Marighella Carlos Marighella (; 5 December 1911 – 4 November 1969) was a Brazilian politician, writer, and guerrilla fighter of Marxist–Leninist orientation. He was accused of engaging in "terrorist acts" against the Brazilian military dictatorshi ...

in 1969, and for the attack against members of the

Communist Party of Brazil The Communist Party of Brazil ( pt-BR, Partido Comunista do Brasil, PCdoB) is a political party in Brazil. The PCdoB officially adheres to Marxist–Leninist theory. It has national reach and deep penetration in the trade union and student m ...

in 1976.

Death and legacy

According to his wife, he drowned while out on his boat on May 1, 1979. A street in the city of

São Carlos São Carlos (Saint Charles, in English, ; named after Saint Charles Borromeo) is a Brazilian municipality in the interior of the state of São Paulo, 254 kilometers from the city of São Paulo. With a population of 254,484 inhabitants, it is th ...

was named after him until 2009, when protests resulted in legislation that changed the name of the street to

Frei Tito Tito de Alencar Lima, O.P. (better known as Frei Tito; 14 September 1945 – 10 August 1974) was a Brazilian Dominican friar who was severely tortured during his country's rule by a military dictatorship. This torture eventually led to his suic ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Paranhos Fleury, Sergio 1933 births 1979 deaths People from Niterói Brazilian police officers Politicide perpetrators People who died at sea

Activities

Death and legacy

See also

References