NSW homicide squad to help Cecilia Haddad murder case in Brazil
AUSTRALIAN homicide detectives will fly to Brazil to help their counterparts in Rio assess evidence into the Sydney death of Cecilia Haddad, as her former partner prepares to face court charged with her murder.
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NSW homicide squad detectives are preparing to fly to Brazil in two weeks’ time to help in the investigation over the murder of Cecilia Haddad in Sydney.
Police sources say NSW Homicide Squad detectives are ready to go but a decision on when they leave remains in the hands of both the Australian and Brazilian governments.
It is understood no firm date has been set for the officers to travel to Brazil.
The man accused of her murder, Marcelo Santoro, will appear in court for the first time on September 19.
Santoro, 40, has been in prison in the city since he was arrested in July following a separate investigation by Brazilian police into 38-year-old Ms Haddad’s death.
It is believed the Australian detectives will be working with their counterparts in Rio to assess and discuss evidence and information collected after the Brazilian executive’s body was found floating in Sydney’s Lane Cove river on April 29.
They will also give evidence before a judge in the first hearing of the case, which will take place at 2pm.
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The homicide officers’ involvement is considered crucial to securing a conviction against Santoro after his lawyers tried to get the case against him thrown out alleging Brazilian police accused him without sufficient proof.
The imminent visit was reported today by the Jornal do Brasil newspaper.
Court documents seen by News Corp allege Santoro returned to his home country after murdering his former lover believing that, because Brazil’s constitution forbids the extradition of citizens, Australian police could not catch him.
The Rio-born engineer “committed the crime in a foreign country and came looking for refuge and impunity in Brazil, knowing that he could not be extradited, and so would avoid the actions of Australian justice,” according to the arrest warrant issued in July.
The document alleges that Santoro strangled Ms Haddad to death because “he could not accept the end of their relationship” before trying to hide her body.
In another document, judge Elizabeth Machado Louro rejected a request by Santoro’s legal team to release him from jail, claiming his incarceration is to guarantee “public order” because of the violent way he is accused of taking Ms Haddad’s life.
She also explains that the accusation of ‘femicide’ — the killing of a woman because she is a woman — demands “extreme measures” to ensure “social peace and avoid the damaging sense of impunity caused by the absence of prompt action by the State”.
The documents also show that letters rogatory have been delivered to key witnesses both in Brazil and Australia, summoning them to give evidence at the September 19 hearing at the 2a Criminal Court in the centre of Rio.
Letters have been sent to addresses in Rio, as well as cities in three other Brazilian states, including the capital Brasilia.
Rio de Janeiro judge Daniel Werneck Cota will be presiding over the first hearing of the case, to which Santoro has also been summoned.
Santoro is awaiting trial at the Bangu 8 prison in west Rio, where many former politicians and businessmen caught up in Brazil’s ‘Car Wash’ corruption investigation are being held.