Car crash that killed Brazilian ex-president Juscelino Kubitschek ruled not suspicious

Former Brazilian president Juscelino Kubitschek was not murdered by the country's military dictatorship but died in 1976 due to a car crash, a panel said.

The announcement by a national truth commission investigating crimes committed under Brazil's 1964-1985 dictatorship contradicts a report issued late last year that said he had been assassinated.

The newest report, prepared by 20 experts, said there were no shots fired on Kubitschek's vehicle and that its trajectory clearly indicates an accident. The car crashed with both a bus and a truck during the accident on August 22, 1976, on a road near the city of Resende.

A separate truth commission created by the city of Sao Paulo concluded in December that Kubitschek was assassinated by the military dictatorship.

Kubitschek (pictured) was in power from 1956 to 1961 and founded the city of Brasilia.

He was an opponent of Brazil's military regime and was stripped of his mandate as senator and of his political rights at the start of the dictatorship. In 1966, he and former president Joao Goulart, who was toppled by the coup, attempted to organise a front to restore democracy. Brasilia has opened an investigation into Goulart's death, also in 1976, to determine whether he was assassinated while in exile in Argentina.