(Porto Alegre) The trial over the nightclub fire that left 242 people dead in Brazil, mostly young people, opened on Wednesday with moving testimonies in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, nearly nine years after the disaster.
Survivors and relatives of the victims continue to demand justice after the dawn tragedy of January 27, 2013 in the Kiss nightclub in the city of Santa Maria, one of the worst fires in Brazil.
Four defendants appear before the court of Porto Alegre: two entrepreneurs and two musicians from the group that played that evening, prosecuted for the homicide of 242 people and attempted homicide of 636 others, the wounded, before a popular jury.
“I am not an assassin! », Exclaimed on entering the court Luciano Bonilha Leao, 44, one of the accused and one of the two musicians, who had to be taken care of by medical staff.
During a college party that night, a member of the group of musicians lit a pyrotechnic device normally reserved outside and set the synthetic coating on the ceiling of the nightclub ablaze, trapping a thousand young people.
Many of them died charred or suffocated by toxic fumes as the room turned into a blaze. The two musicians had escaped in time from the discotheque without warning the young audience, although they had a sound system.
The investigation showed that the extinguishers were not working, that the signage was faulty and that only two doors allowed the evacuation of the crowd.
Judge Orlando Faccini Neto and a seven-member jury are scheduled to hear testimony from 14 survivors and 19 other witnesses, as well as the four defendants, the court said.
“I didn’t want to die”
This trial, considered historic for Brazilian justice, is broadcast live and should last two weeks.
The first of the three witnesses to be heard on the first day was Katia Giane Pacheco Siquera, ex-employee of Kiss.
“I screamed that I didn’t want to die,” she said, crying, recalling the 21 days spent in the hospital, her body 40% burned, according to images broadcast on the court’s YouTube channel. .
According to her, the policy of the management of the discotheque was limited to: “The more people there are inside, the better”.
The four defendants were remanded in custody after the disaster before being released a few months later.
The trial was disoriented, the justice having decided in 2020 to organize it far from Santa Maria to guarantee the impartiality of the debates.
The Association of Relatives of the Victims and Survivors of Santa Maria raised funds on social networks to travel to Porto Alegre, 300 km away, to attend this highly anticipated trial.