In the kiosk where Moïse Kabagambe lost his life, a banner with the lament of the boy’s mother, who was 24 years old, was placed. Next to the photo of the refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo, the phrase said by Ivana Lay. “We fled Congo so they wouldn’t kill us. But they killed my son here.”
According to the social organizer of the NGO Rio de Paz, João Luis Silva, the action aims to draw attention to the situation of immigrants in the country. “We decided to bring the phrase as a way to impact, to shock even more this society that does not look at this person as a subject of rights. Like a person who had a family, like a person who had a mother, siblings. Moïse wasn’t just that black boy who was beaten. Moise was more than that. Her sentence could be the sentence of many other immigrants”, said João Luis.
Many people who passed by the kiosks where everything happened stopped to take pictures. “We are perplexed once again, we are very impacted by the way Moïse was brutally killed. But this cannot be normal, this cannot fall into naturalization. (…) We need to show repudiation, support the family, so that this case does not happen again”, said the representative of the NGO, which is known for protests against violence in Rio de Janeiro.
Moïse was killed last January 24th. According to the family, the Congolese worked as a freelancer at kiosks on the waterfront and would have gone to collect a labor debt. The Civil Police of Rio de Janeiro has already heard from at least twelve people. Employees at the establishments denied that there were any late payments. According to the testimonies, the discussion would have started between the kiosk employee and Moïse, because the Congolese was drunk and trying to get drinks. The information was refuted by the family and the OAB.
The attackers, however, told the police that they overheard the argument and went to defend the kiosk employee. All claim that there was no racial or xenophobic motivation in the crime. Three men identified as the victim’s aggressors were temporarily detained for 30 days. The kiosk remains closed by determination of Orla Rio, responsible for managing the spaces.
According to the representative of the NGO, “no reason justifies the fact that a person is brutally, cowardly murdered. No facts. Not that he’d taken anything from that kiosk. Because if we go down that path, we’re going to give justice, legitimize the beating of people in the streets. We will legitimize justice into our own hands. And this country has law. You need to respect the laws, especially with human life”, recalled João Luis.
THE CNN had access to all the images of the kiosk’s internal circuit and decided to show the excerpts that show the ambush of Moïse. Aggressions will not be displayed.
Chamber of Deputies asks for clarification on the case
The Human Rights Commission of the Chamber of Deputies is evaluating a diligence to Rio de Janeiro to monitor the case closely. The parliamentarians asked the authorities to adopt measures to rigorously investigate the facts, with the identification of the authors and their due accountability. Both the State Government, the Public Ministry and the Civil Police have already been notified to send information.
The Public Ministry of the State of Rio de Janeiro (MPRJ) reported that it is swiftly adopting all appropriate measures in the case. It has already obtained from the Justice the temporary arrest of the three men caught by security cameras beating the young Congolese.
Source: CNN Brasil
