A BRAZILIAN judge handed down long sentences to three former officers of the country’s Federal Highway Police on Saturday, over the death of a black man in 2022, killed by asphyxiation inside a smoke-filled car boot.

Video of officers forcibly keeping Genivaldo de Jesus Santos in the back of their police vehicle, as a dense cloud of what appeared to be tear gas emerged from the car, sparked outrage across Brazil and protests in Umbauba, in the north-eastern state of Sergipe.

Police had said the man displayed aggressive behaviour and was “actively resisting” the officers who pulled him over. They said agents immobilised him then used “instruments of lesser offensive potential” to contain him.