Rio de Janeiro court orders indemnity for fighter wrongfully imprisoned for six years

The Court of Justice of Rio de Janeiro (TJ/RJ) has overturned a previous ruling to mandate that the State indemnify Sílvio José da Silva Marques, a fighter known as Sílvio Pantera, for wrongful imprisonment. Pantera spent 2,174 days—nearly six years—incarcerated for a robbery and murder he did not commit.

The case dates back to a 2015 robbery in Irajá, where a victim was stabbed and a vehicle stolen. Despite evidence placing Pantera at a gym 30 kilometers away at the time of the crime, he was convicted in 2017 after a flawed photographic identification process. The Superior Court of Justice (STJ) later overturned the conviction, citing a