Police officer convicted to one year in prison for refusing to clean bathroom in Bauru
The Military Court of São Paulo has convicted soldier Emanuel Henrique da Silva for insubordination after refusing an order to clean the bathroom of the 4th BPM/I. The defence denies that the act constitutes a crime and announces an appeal.
Military Court of SP convicts police officer who demanded written order to clean battalion bathroom
Soldier Emanuel Henrique da Silva, aged 32, was convicted to one year in prison by the 1st Audit Office of the Military Court of Justice of the State of São Paulo (TJM-SP). According to oglobo.globo.com, the sentence was handed down on Wednesday by judge Bruno Maciel dos Santos, based on the insubordination provisions of the Military Penal Code. The defendant may serve the sentence in an open regime.
The case originated at the 4th Interior Police Military Battalion (4º BPM/I), in Bauru, in the interior of São Paulo. Lieutenant Éder Franco Brandão verbally ordered soldier Silva to carry out maintenance and cleaning of the bathroom designated for corporals and soldiers of the unit. In response, the officer requested that the order be formalised in writing.
Even after being cautioned that the verbal order had legal validity, Silva reiterated the requirement. According to the court proceedings — to which O Globo had access — the soldier "reiterated the refusal and subsequently reaffirmed that he would only perform the task by written order, even admitting the possibility of being imprisoned as a result of his stance".
In the sentence, the judge concluded that the officer "deliberately failed to comply with an order from his hierarchical superior regarding service, refusing to exercise a function for which he was fully capable and regularly assigned, contrary to legal and functional determination".
The proceedings were opened in October of last year. At the time, the Public Security Secretariat reported that Silva was charged with having "committed the crime of Refusal to Obey a Manifestly Legal Order from a Hierarchical Superior", based on Article 163 of the Military Penal Code. The soldier was arrested in flagrante delicto and transferred to the Romão Gomes Military Prison, being released the following day after a custody hearing.
Defence contests conviction and denies wilfulness
During the trial, the defence argued that "conviction would require reliable proof of conscious and voluntary refusal to comply with the order" and contended that the soldier did not refuse to obey — he merely requested formalisation in writing and stated that he would comply with the order.
In a note sent to Globo, lawyer Abelardo Julio da Rocha stated that the conduct attributed to the officer does not constitute a criminal offence and questioned the legitimacy of the cleaning request. Rocha highlighted that "one cannot confuse the request for formalisation of an order with the commission of a military crime" and that the case cannot result in "criminal conviction without unequivocal proof of wilfulness".
The defence lawyer added that Silva found the bathroom occupied at the moment he was supposed to carry out the task and returned to communicate the situation to his superior, and it was at that moment he was taken into custody — a circumstance which, according to the defence, prevented the actual carrying out of the cleaning.
The soldier himself reported in the proceedings that he began receiving cleaning tasks at the battalion after questioning Lieutenant Brandão about whether a construction project at the barracks had gone through a tender process. The superior denied having promoted any form of harassment against the subordinate.
Source: Google News BR — São Paulo