Brazilian agency retains employee who made gesture similar to Nazi salute
The employee of the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa), Marcelo Costa Mota, aged 46, remains on the institution’s staff 78 days after CENARIUM revealed a photo in which he appears making a gesture similar to the “Sieg Heil” salute used by Adolf Hitler in the totalitarian German regime during the Second World War (1939–1945). The company informed the report on Wednesday, 16th, that the man is undergoing a disciplinary process, expected to conclude in May 2025.
CENARIUM consulted data available on the transparency portal, which showed that Marcelo Costa is allocated to the Information Technology Centre of Embrapa Western Amazon and receives a gross salary of R$12,800 — around R$10,500 after deductions from the payroll. The table shows the employee was paid in January, February and March this year.
On Wednesday, 16th, in a new statement, the company pointed out that prior to the opening of the procedure, during a Summary Preliminary Investigation (IPS), Embrapa’s Internal Affairs Office “ascertained that the events occurred outside the work environment, with no link to the Company, and should therefore be subject to criminal rather than administrative investigation.” The statement also notes that the Federal Police (PF) was notified about the case in January this year.
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