Agency Report
A Brazilian court convicted four people for their role in a nightclub fire that left 242 people dead nearly a decade ago, handing down sentences of up to 22 years.
The 2013 fire at the nightclub in the southern town of Santa Maria started when members of a musical band playing that night lit flares that set fire to the ceiling.
Two owners of the Kiss night club and two members of the Gurizada Fandangueira band were found guilty of murder and attempted murder of the victims, mostly young university students.
Judge Orlando Faccini delivered the verdict on the tenth day of an emotional trial held in Porto Alegre, the capital of the state of Rio Grande do Sul.
“The defendants’ culpability is high… this much life was not taken away by chance,” he said.
Club co-owners Elissandro Callegaro Spohr, 38, and Mauro Londero Hoffmann, 56, received 22.5 and 19.5 years respectively.
Band members Luciano Bonilha Leao, 44, and Marcelo de Jesus dos Santos, 41, received 18 years of prison time.
