Brazilian government confirms new autopsy will be performed on Juliana Marins' body

The Brazilian government has decided to redo the autopsy of the body of Juliana Marins , 26, a Brazilian tourist who died after falling off a cliff on the Mount Rinjani trail in Indonesia . The AGU (Attorney General's Office) reported on Monday (30) that it will voluntarily comply with the family's request .

"Images from tourist drones suggest that Juliana survived the initial accident and waited days for rescue. The expectation is that a new examination, now on national territory, will definitively clarify the causes and time of the young Brazilian's death," says the AGU in a statement.

The agency claims to have requested an urgent hearing with the DPU (Public Defender's Office) and the state of Rio de Janeiro to define the most appropriate way to meet the family's wishes. The request was accepted by the court and the hearing is expected to take place this Tuesday (1st), at 3 pm.

"The decision to urgently respond to all requests from Juliana's family was based on a determination by the President of the Republic, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva," says the AGU.

The meeting should define the details of how and where the new procedure will be carried out. According to the AGU, the Federal Police offered to collaborate, for example, with the transfer of the body to the designated IML (Forensic Medical Institute), if that is the measure defined by the institutions.

The young woman's family had already expressed interest in a new autopsy being performed in Brazil. On Sunday (29), the DPU filed a precautionary action in the Federal Court with this objective.

According to the DPU, the autopsy must take place within a maximum of six hours after landing on national territory, in order to guarantee the preservation of evidence.

Emirates Airlines had reported that the body would be transported to Dubai on Tuesday and then to Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday. However, on Monday night, the company announced in a statement that the body would arrive in São Paulo on Tuesday (1st) . It was not reported how the body would be transferred to Rio de Janeiro. The burial will be in Niterói, where the young woman lived.

"With the help of the GGIM (Integrated Municipal Management Office) of the City of Niterói, we contacted the DPU-RJ (Public Defender's Office of the Union), which immediately filed a request with the Federal Court requesting a new autopsy at the home of my sister, Juliana Marins. We believe in the Brazilian Federal Judiciary and hope for a positive decision in the next few hours," said Mariana Marins, the Brazilian's sister, on the Instagram profile created to share information about the case.

International press reports indicate that Juliana survived for up to four days after the accident, waiting for help. In an interview on Friday (27), a forensic doctor who worked on the case stated that the young woman suffered blunt force trauma , with internal injuries and hemorrhaging. Death occurred approximately 20 minutes after one of the impacts , possibly caused by successive falls on the steep part of the trail. According to the expert, she died on Tuesday (24) or Wednesday (25).

This version, however, was contradicted by Juliana's father, Manoel Marins , to Fantástico, on TV Globo : "On Monday morning [23], they sent another drone, a regular drone, which was the drone that found Juliana. She was already dead on Monday morning", he stated, blaming the guide and the park administration for his daughter's death.

"In my opinion, the culprits are the guide, who left Juliana alone to smoke, and the company that sells the tours. These tours are sold at stalls as easy trails. But the first culprit, who I consider the biggest culprit, is the park coordinator. He took a long time to call the Civil Defense [Basarnas]," he highlighted.

"Juliana told the guide 'I'm tired'. The guide said 'sit here, stay seated'. And the guide told us that he walked away from where Juliana was for five to ten minutes to smoke. After walking for five to ten minutes and smoking for half an hour, he came back. When he came back, he couldn't find Juliana. That was around 4am. When he saw Juliana, it was already 6:08am", she said.

The DPU also sent a letter to the Federal Police Superintendence in Rio de Janeiro on Monday requesting the opening of a police investigation to determine the circumstances of the death.

The case, although it occurred outside the national territory, can be investigated and eventually tried by the Brazilian Federal Court, according to article 7 of the Penal Code. The rule provides for the so-called conditional extraterritorial jurisdiction, applicable to crimes committed abroad against Brazilians, as long as certain requirements are met, such as the presence of the suspect in Brazil, the classification of the crime also in the country of origin and the absence of a previous trial for the same act.

Meanwhile, in Indonesia, police on the island of Lombok, where the volcano is located, announced on Monday that they had already interviewed witnesses and inspected the site where Juliana fell to try to identify whether there was any type of irregularity in her death.

On Monday, four witnesses were heard: a trekking organizer, a local guide, a porter from Bayan, North Lombok, and a forest police officer from Ampenan, Mataram, who was responsible for security and protection in the Mount Rinjani National Park area.