Brazil Court Releases Vale, TÜV SÜD Employees in Dam Collapse Case
05 Fevereiro 2019 - 6:06PM
Dow Jones News
By Luciana Magalhaes
SÃO PAULO -- An appeals court on Tuesday ordered the release of
three employees of Vale SA and two engineers working for Germany's
TÜV SÜD who had been detained after a deadly dam spill at one of
the Brazilian company's mines.
All five had been detained for questioning last month amid a
continuing investigation of the collapse of a tailings dam in the
rural town of Brumadinho.
TÜV SÜD's two employees had certified the safety of the
ill-fated waste dam on behalf of the Brazilian mining giant.
On its Twitter page, Brazil's Superior Court of Justice, or STJ,
said the employees had already been heard and there was no need to
keep them under arrest.
The collapse of the dam in the mineral-rich state of Minas
Gerais has caused 134 confirmed deaths so far, with close to two
hundred people still missing and probably dead, according to
authorities.
The burst followed another fatal dam accident just three years
ago at another mine belonging to a company half-owned by Vale.
The STJ decision is temporary and could still be reversed, a
spokeswoman said. As of Tuesday afternoon there was no information
about the timing of the release.
Write to Luciana Magalhaes at Luciana.Magalhaes@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 05, 2019 14:51 ET (19:51 GMT)
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