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.

The victim could be heard screaming, with local media later reporting he had tried to explain he was taking medication for psychiatric disorders.

After a 12-day trial, jurors found the officers guilty of torturing and killing the man. Justice Rafael Soares sentenced Paulo Rodolpho Lima Nascimento to 28 years in prison for murder, according to a statement from the federal regional court.

Justice Soares sentenced the other officers, William de Barros Noia and Kleber Nascimento Freitas, to more than 23 years each, for torture resulting in death.

In August 2023, an internal disciplinary process recommended that the three officers be dismissed, a decision later confirmed by the Justice Ministry.

Police violence has once again come into sharp focus in Brazil. Last Tuesday, footage of a military police officer in Sao Paulo throwing a man off a bridge and into a river prompted a backlash.

A day earlier, local media G1 published a video of an off-duty military police officer fatally shooting a young man last month, who had stolen packets of soap.