Eight Vale employees will remain in jail, following the Brumadinho disaster, which killed at least 176 people and left many others missing.
A Minas Gerais state court denied a request to free the eight employees, under a habeas corpus request, a law preventing a person to be kept in prison unless they have first been brought before a court of law. The imprisonment of the eight Vale employees is provisional.
The eight Vale workers were arrested on February 15. They were directly involved with the safety and stability of failing dam, which burst on January 25. Among the eight Vale employees arrested, four are managers, out of which two have executive roles, and the other four are employees of technical areas.
The judge who declined the habeas corpus request said the imprisonment of the eight Vale workers is well grounded. The court document showed an email by TUV SUD had already indicated the failing dam would not pass a stability test on August 13, 2018. At the time, the TUV SUD technicians suggested they could not attest the safety of the structure.