Brasilia - (AFP) - Outgoing Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro issued a decree pardoning security men convicted of crimes more than 30 years ago, and it applies, according to legal experts, to the perpetrators of a massacre in a prison in 1992.

According to an official document, this traditional Christmas action, which comes nine days before Bolsonaro leaves office, involves officers and personnel for "not very serious" crimes committed in the line of duty more than three decades ago.

This decree thus absolves 74 policemen convicted of the massacre in the Carandero prison in São Paulo on October 2, 1992, when 111 prisoners were killed in a riot-control military police intervention, according to specialists.

While the prosecution said at the time that the prisoners were executed, the defense asserted that the military police were acting in self-defence.
Carandero prison was closed immediately after the incident.

Although the security men involved were prosecuted and sentenced, they remained out of prison thanks to repeated appeals, according to the Brazilian press.