Two of his colleagues, William Noia and Kleber Freitas, each received 23 years in prison for torture resulting in death.The sentencing was the culmination of a case that began in May 2022, with the arrest of 38-year-old Genivaldo de Jesus Santos.

The three officers pulled Santos over for riding his motorcycle without a helmet, not far from the town of Umbauba in Sergipe.A bystander took a video of the encounter that later went viral. Santos appeared to offer no resistance as the three police officers pulled him to the ground and restrained his arms and legs.

The officers, however, had described Santos as “actively resisting”.Local media reported that Santos suffered from schizophrenia and was heard yelling to explain that he was taking medication. But the officers lifted Santos into the boot of their sport utility vehicle (SUV).

The video captured the officers as they lowered the boot’s door and held it shut while clouds of dense, white smoke poured from the car. Santos screamed, and his legs could be seen kicking. A witness cried, ”They are going to kill him!”Rodolpho was accused of throwing tear gas into the boot and helping to hold the door. He received the highest sentence.Prosecutors, meanwhile, said Freitas used pepper spray five times against Santos, while Noia played a role in keeping the boot door shut while the tear gas poured out.An autopsy later showed Santos ultimately died of asphyxiation. The three officers were dismissed from the Federal Highway Police.During the course of their 12-day trial, the court heard from experts who described Santos’s final moments, spending more than 11 minutes restrained in an enclosed space surrounded by toxic gas.Tear gas contains potentially lethal chemicals, particularly when deployed in large doses or over long periods of time.All three officers were convicted. Santos’s sister, Laura de Jesus Santos, welcomed the outcome of the sentencing hearing on Saturday.“It was a satisfactory result, although we are not happy with anyone’s misfortune. It calms us down, but it does not bring happiness,” she told the news agency G1.

Earlier this year, the United Nations issued a report addressing police violence in Brazil. It found that more than 6,000 people per year have been killed in interactions with Brazil’s law enforcement for the last six years. In 2023, the total was 6,393.

This is a marked increase over previous yearly totals. In 2013, for instance, 2,212 people were killed by officers.Black people were disproportionately represented among the statistics. People of African descent represented nearly 83 percent of the cases, making them three times more likely to be killed by Brazilian police.

In a news conference on Thursday, Mayor Paul Young said that the city has been taking steps to address police abuses but is sceptical of entering a binding agreement with the federal government, known as a consent decree.

“We believe we can make more effective and meaningful change by working together with community input and independent national experts than with a bureaucratic, costly and complicated federal government consent decree,” Young said.

The Justice Department released the investigation, carried out by its civil rights division, on Wednesday.The 73-page report found that Black people in Memphis are arrested or penalised for loitering and curfew violations at 13 times the rate for white people. Local law enforcement also cites or arrests Black people for disorderly conduct at 3.6 times the rate for white people.

Most notably, the investigation concluded that Memphis Police Department (MPD) officers “regularly escalate” situations involving nonviolent offences.

“MPD officers resort to force likely to cause pain or injury almost immediately in response to low-level,nonviolent offenses, even when people are not aggressive,” the report explained.

But the report added that police officers accused of beating people in restraints or handcuffs face little accountability from supervisors.

The Justice Department’s investigation was initiated after a video emerged of Memphis police beating a 29-year-old Black man named Tyre Nichols in 2023.Nichols was pulled from his car during a traffic stop, and when he broke free and fled, five officers pursued him into a residential neighbourhood where his mother lived.

They pulled Nichols to the ground, hitting and kicking him while he called out to his mother for help.

That beating is one of several instances of police abuse that have sparked nationwide protests and calls to address discrimination in the US policing and the criminal justice system.

In October, a federal jury convicted three police officers of charges related to the beating. An autopsy found Nichols died from repeated blows to the head.

Black residents of the city and criminal justice activists say they had been expressing their frustration with police practices for years before the fatal beating of Nichols.

But city officials have sought to walk a line between acknowledging the thorny issues around policing and committing to enforceable changes.

Memphis City Attorney Tannera Gibson said in a letter to the Justice Department that the city is not ready to discuss potential reforms with the police department, stating that authorities need time to look through the findings.

Gibson also suggested that the investigation had been rushed, since it “only took 17 months to complete, compared to an average of 2-3 years in almost every other instance”.

In a news conference on Thursday, Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke from the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division called the probe “comprehensive and exhaustive”.

“The people of Memphis deserve a police department and city that protects their civil and constitutional rights, garners trust and keeps them safe,” said Clarke.

Mr Afriyie claimed he suffered head, back and leg injuries due to being Tasered and falling to the ground, banging his head on a stone ledge.

The force said it was “disappointed by the ruling”.

In a statement it added that it would “need to take time to consider our next steps before we can comment further”.

Mr Afriyie was stopped by police on suspicion of driving at excessive speed and was eventually detained for failing to supply a sample of breath.

Mr Afriyie was charged with failure to provide a specimen for analysis but was not convicted of the driving offence.

A High Court trial heard last year that Mr Afriyie was standing with his arms folded while talking to a friend when he was Tasered and footage showed him falling backwards, landing with his head on a step and his body on the pavement.

High Court judge Mrs Justice Hill found the use of the firearm was reasonable in the circumstances, however Mr Afriyie took the case to the Court of Appeal and on Friday, three senior judges ruled the use of the Taser was not “objectively reasonable” and damages should be awarded.

In a ruling Lord Justice William Davis, sitting with the Lady Chief Justice Baroness Carr and Lord Justice Dingemans, said Mr Afriyie “was standing and talking to his friend” before the Taser was fired.

“A proper objective analysis of whether using a weapon classified as a firearm was reasonable would have led the judge to conclude that it was not.”

Her conclusion that further negotiation would have been futile did not amount to the necessary analysis of objective reasonableness of the nature and degree of force used.

“Agreeing with the ruling, Baroness Carr said: “Tasers are prohibited firearms. They are potentially lethal weapons.”

“The use of a Taser on the appellant, who at the time of discharge was standing still in a non-aggressive stance with his arms folded and talking to his friend, was not objectively reasonable in the circumstances.”

Mr Afriyie’s solicitor Kevin Donoghue said: “I hope that this judgment, the first of its kind in England and Wales, brings home to the police the risks associated with the use of Tasers.

“Tasers are firearms and can have serious consequences, as Mr Afriyie found.

“The judgment should reassure the public that victims of unlawful use of force will take aggressive action to hold the police to account.”

He added: “This six-year pursuit of justice has caused a severe emotional toll on Ed.”

The City of London Police should have accepted liability shortly after the incident occurred, instead of wasting thousands of pounds of taxpayer’s money defending its officer’s conduct.”