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Jail term for violent soccer fan

With the prosecutor calling it "society's response" to soccer violence, a fan has been convicted for the first time in a violent death inside a Brazilian stadium of a counterpart from a rival club, media reports said in Rio de Janeiro.

A seven-member jury found Adalberto Benedito Dos Santos guilty for the 1995 murder of 16-year-old Marcio Gasparin da Silva, who died from several blows to the head during a riot between supporters of Sao Paulo FC and Plmeiras in a Sao Paulo Stadium.

Judge Cassio Modenesi Barbosa sentenced Dos Santos, 23, to 12 years in jail.

"The conviction is society's response to the vandalism and savagery that has invaded soccer stadiums,'' prosecutor Eloisa De Souza Arruda told reporters.

Dos Santos' attorney Laerte Torrens says he will appeal the verdict, and expects a new trial within eight months. He argues that an autopsy proves his client didn't wield the death blow.

Nevertheless, the victim's family hopes the verdict will send a strong message to soccer fans throughout Brazil.

"We hope that the sentence will serve notice to others that this just can't happen anymore,'' Gianir Gasparin, Da Silva's aunt, told reporters.

In the past few years, clashes between fans of rival Brazilian clubs have occurred with increasing regularity. Weapons range from rocks and brass knuckles to guns and homemade grenades fashioned from billiard balls.

Da Silva's death became an impetus for Sao Paulo authorities to stop the violence, mainly by organized clubs comprised of young supporters.

Four days after Da Silva's death, police and the local soccer federation barred all fan clubs from state stadiums, a measure that is still in effect.

Dos Santos was identified as a member of Palmeiras' Green Stain, one of the most notorious fan clubs associated with soccer violence. Green Stain and members of FC Sao Paulo's Independente clashed on the field after the August 20, 1995 Brazilian Under-20 supercup game in Sao Paulo's Pacaembu stadium.

Palmeiras fans swarmed onto the field to celebrate a 1-0 victory and Independente responded by grabbing material from a nearby construction depository. The two groups battled on the field for more than an hour, with TV coverage showing a Palmeiras fan clubbing Da Silva over the head with a wooden bar.

After slipping into a coma, Da Silva died eight days later.

Sociologists say fans clubs are an escape valve for many youths.

"They have no other channel for political and cultural participation, so they channel all their energy into soccer,'' said Mauricio Murad, who directs the Rio de Janeiro state university's permanent center for the sociology of football.

Clubs with names like Blue Mafia, Youth Force, Wise Guy and Loyal Hawks initiate the beatings or "trophy hunts'', in which jerseys are torn off the backs of rival fans.

"These youths suffer from a collective delirium as if they are in the game,'' Murad said. "They believe the game is won on the field by the team and off the field by the fans.''

After Da Silva's death, authorities dissolved the Green Stain and Independente. In 1997, a court order abolished the Corinthian's Loyal Hawks after members hurled rocks at their own team's bus on a major highway after a key loss.