Colonel who ordered prison massacre gets 600 years

A Brazilian police colonel whose officers gunned down prisoners in one of Brazil's most shocking jail riots has been sentenced to 632 years' imprisonment for a total of 102 murders.

Colonel Ubiratan Guimaraesis the first of 84 officials to face trial for the massacre at Carandiru prison in 1992. He left the courtroom in tears, vowing to appeal.

As commander of a battalion of elite shock troops, Col Guimaraes ordered his men to quell a riot that broke out after a fight erupted between prisoners. When his officers moved in, some inmates tossed their weapons out the windows and hung banners appealing for peace. Others barricaded themselves inside their units and set corridors ablaze.

Fearing that the fires might spread, Col Guimaraes ordered more officers into the prison. When they emerged a few hours later, 111 prisoners were dead. The jury absolved him of responsibility for nine deaths by stabbing.

Prisoners said they survived the gunfire by hiding under piles of dead bodies while the police executed prisoners at point-blank range even after they had surrendered. Independent investigators were prevented from entering the area for a week afterwards, leading officials to believe the police had tampered with evidence.

Even in a country accustomed to police violence and horrific prison conditions, the massacre at Carandiru prompted outrage. Photographs of blood-smeared corpses lined up naked in morgues and hospital corridors were shown around the world, turning the jail into an exemplar of all that is wrong with the country's repressive prison system. Many of the bodies were found naked – a sign of surrender, according to human rights watchers. Col Guimaraes, 58, became a symbol of police brutality.

Unrepentant, Colonel Guimaraes ran for office with the number 111 – the death toll at Carandiru – on his ballot and gave his horse the same number. He has refused to acknowledge that his officers overreacted that October afternoon.

"I would do my duty again," he told a reporter. "It was not a massacre but a response to aggressions we suffered."

The trial was stalled for years, first in military tribunals and then because the colonel's status as a São Paulo city councillor gave him parliamentary immunity from prosecution. Yesterday's conviction has been hailed as a breakthrough.

Although human rights activists have fought to close Carandiru, the facility remains open and today houses over 8,000 inmates, more than twice as many as it was designed to hold. Prisoners routinely complain of torture, including suspension of prisoners by the legs from metal bars, asphyxiation and the use of electric shocks. Infectious diseases sweep through the complex; tuberculosis and HIV/Aids are rife.

Gangs are omnipresent. The authorities admit that with many of the wardens threatened or bought off by the prisoners, there is little they can do to stop the influx of drugs, knives, guns and even grenades into the jail.

In February members of a notorious Carandiru gang with mobile phones incited 28,000 prisoners in 27 jails across the state of São Paulo to stage an unprecedented mass riot. Seven prisoners were killed by police, while another 13 were killed by fellow prisoners.

The country is increasingly ashamed of its appallingly overcrowded jails. A Brazilian parliamentary commission recently described them as "a reinvention of hell".

Colonel Guimaraes is not obliged to begin his sixcentury sentence just yet. He will remain free while fighting his appeal.