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Brazilian club signs goalkeeper convicted of killing girlfriend

A Brazilian football club brushed aside a storm of criticism on Tuesday to sign a goalkeeper convicted for murdering his girlfriend, whose body was fed to the dogs

Amid smiles and handshakes, Boa Esporte unveiled a two-year contract for Bruno Fernandes de Souza, who was released from jail last month pending an appeal.

The announcement drew anger from the family of the victim, Eliza Samudio, and groups campaigning against the high levels of gender-based violence in Brazil.

“Women are outraged and so are the general public. It is as if he had gone unpunished,” wrote Djamila Ribeiro, a political philosopher and feminist activist, on the UOL website.

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Three sponsors withdrew their support from the team in protest against the decision. Hackers posted denunciations on the homepage of the team.

But many football fans applauded the return of one of the country’s most popular players, despite the gruesome crimes he committed.

The signing of Bruno comes amid growing concern about femicide and rape in Brazil. To mark International Women’s Day last week, the Cruzeiro football team – which is famed for being socially progressive – wore shirts that highlighted the problems with relevant data for each number, for example: “A rape every 11 minutes”.

In June she was lured, with her son, into a car with the promise that Fernandes was going to give her a house. Instead she was pistol-whipped and driven to Fernandes’s apartment, where she was tied to a chair and tortured for six days, in front of her son.

Fernandes’s wife, another lover, a cousin and a former police officer, Marcos Santos all took turns to beat her. It is claimed Fernandes himself watched as Santos committed “barbaric tortures” on the victim, playing music to drown out her screams before strangling her with a tie in front of her son.

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Her body was then chopped up and fed to the dogs, with the bones buried in concrete.

The boy was dumped in a favela.

Police took Fernandes in for questioning, and he told them Samudio had left the country.

“I pray that Eliza will appear, and when that happens, if I am the father I will fight for the guardianship, because I don’t believe in leaving a child,” he said at the time. “I have a clear conscience.”

But her friends and relatives did not believe him, insisting that the new mother would never have abandoned her son. Bloodstains, sandals and sunglasses were found in his car – yet he still protested his innocence.

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Fernandes’s teenage cousin eventually confessed, but Fernandes continued to deny involvement. As he walked into court to face a murder charge in 2013, he told reporters he had a “clear conscience” and added: “In the future, I’ll be able to laugh at this.”

But he too cracked under questioning, and admitted that she was dead. He claimed he had not made the order to kill her but had “accepted” it and knew she had been killed for a fee of £8,000.

The judge said Fernandes had “meticulously calculated” the execution, and it emerged he had tried to kill himself twice while awaiting trial.

Edson Moreira, the investigating detective, said: “His acts were almost impossible to describe without breaking down. Images from the worst nightmare you could imagine.”

The gang members were sentenced to between five and 22 years, while Fernandes was sentenced to 22 years and three months.

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But Fernandes’s legal team managed to secure his release last month, after only seven years.

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