At least 25 police officers have been given life sentences for their part in the 1992 massacre in Sao Paulo’s Carandiru jail that left 111 prisoners dead.
Each police officer was sentenced to 624 years for the death of 52 inmates, BBC reports.
The verdicts come in the second of four stages of the trial involving different floors of the prison. 23 officers were given life terms in the first stage in April.
The police officers expected to stay free pending an appeal.
The defence can only challenge the verdicts after the end of the whole trial, expected in January 2014.
The officers, nine of whom are still on active duty, would also lose their jobs, according to O Globo newspaper.
The riot began on October 2, 1992 after an argument between two inmates quickly spread, with rival gangs facing off in what was at the time one of South America’s largest prisons, housing 10,000 inmates.
Inmates said riot police brutally repressed the riot.
The officers’ lawyer, Ieda Ribeiro de Souza, argued they were only doing their duty and acted in self-defence, as many of the inmates were armed.
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