“Uncle Paulo” case: defense says woman suffered retaliation in jail

In conversation with the CNN this Saturday (20), lawyer Ana Carla de Souza Correa, who is defending Erika de Souza Vieira Nunes, a woman being investigated for taking a dead man in a wheelchair to the bank to withdraw a loan of R$ 17 thousand, said that his client suffered retaliation in jail.

According to the lawyer, Erika was not well received by the other inmates the day she entered the institution. The other prisoners would have thrown water and food at the woman. “We are worried about her physical integrity, but, according to Erika herself, she is already in a reserved cell”, reported the lawyer.

The defense also informed that it does not intend to request the transfer of the person being investigated, but has filed a request to revoke the preventive detention. “At this time, there was no new information, nor new witnesses. We are just waiting for the revocation response”, explains the lawyer.

A CNN contacted the State Secretariat for Penitentiary Administration (SEAP) and is awaiting a response.

Remember the case:

A woman, identified as Érika de Souza Vieira, was detained this Tuesday afternoon (16) by the Civil Police of Rio de Janeiro after taking a dead man in a wheelchair to the bank to withdraw a loan of R$17,000.

In the video, recorded by one of the bank's attendants, it is possible to see the corpse in the wheelchair, with the head being supported by the hand of the alleged niece. Erika calls the elderly man “Uncle Paulo”, but, in fact, she is the man’s cousin.

To take out the loan, Paulo had to sign a document, which was not possible since he was dead. Even so, Erika insists: “Uncle Paulo, are you listening? You need to sign. If you don't sign, there's no way. I can't sign for you, it has to be you. What I can do, I do.”

Even without the elderly man moving a finger, the supposed niece continues talking to the dead man, while trying to get the corpse's hand to pick up the pen: “It's kind of like the document here, look. Paulo Roberto Braga. You hold on, you hold on tight as hell to the chair there.”

Seeing that it was difficult to get her uncle's hand to pick up the pen, the niece asks the attendants: “Didn't he hold the door there?” Two female voices respond that they didn't see him hold it.

“Hold on, uncle. Sign so you don't give me any more headaches, having to go to the registry office. I can’t take it anymore”, continues Erika.

At that moment, the two attendants begin to intervene, “he’s not well, no”. That's when a fly lands on a man's nose. Erika begins to ask the corpse: “Are you feeling anything? But he doesn’t say anything!” The attendants repeat that the man does not appear to be well, “his color is not staying…”. Erika responds by saying that her uncle is like that.

The niece ends the video by asking her dead uncle: “If you don't get well, I'm going to take you to the hospital. Do you want to go to UPA again?”