The conviction of 23 Brazilian police officers for killing inmates in a prison massacre two decades ago is a “vital” step towards justice, Amnesty International has said.

The officers were sentenced yesterday to 156 years each in jail for their role in the deaths of 13 inmates during bloody riots at São Paulo’s Carandiru prison in 1992, in which more than 100 inmates died.

“The victims, their families and survivors of this brutal, shocking crime have waited 20 years for justice,” said Atila Roque, Director of Amnesty International in Brazil.

“This vital, if long overdue, ruling will hopefully kickstart a process that brings all those responsible for the killings to justice, including those in command.”

The Carandiru case has become emblematic of the flaws in São Paulo’s criminal justice system and its inability to deal with human rights violations.

The authorities have failed to investigate the role of senior state government officials, while the conviction of the military operation’s commanding officer Colonel Ubiratan Guimarães was controversially overturned in 2006.

Military police shock troops were sent into Carandiru when a fight among prisoners, who had seized control of the jail’s Block 9, escalated into a riot on 2 October 1992.

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