Six years, 7 months and 17 days after the crime, justice was served. “Justice is sometimes slow, it is blind, it is stupid, it is unfair, it is wrong, it is crooked, but it arrives. “Justice comes even for those who, like the accused, think that they will always be safe from justice,” said Lúcia Glioche, judge of the 4th Tribunal do Júri of Rio de Janeiro, on Thursday, before reading the sentence against the murderers of the councilor of Rio de Janeiro Marielle Franco (of the Socialism and Freedom Party, PSOL) and her driver, Anderson Gomes.
After hearing the verdict of a popular jury, Lúcia Glioche pronounced the sentence for the perpetrators of the crime that convulsed an entire country and shook international public opinion: 78 years in prison for Ronnie Lessa, the perpetrator of the shooting; 59 years for Élcio Queiroz, the driver of the vehicle. In addition, the two will have to pay compensation of R$ 3,530,000 (almost 600,000 euros) to the victims’ relatives and assume the costs of the judicial process.
After the sentencing, emotion broke out in a room full of supporters of Marielle Franco. His parents (Marinete and Antônio), his sister (Anielle Franco, Minister of Racial Equality), his daughter (Luyara), his widow (Mônica Benício) and the widow of Anderson Gomes (Ágatha Reis) hugged and applauded. At his side was Marcelo Freixo, one of the public figures who historically leads the fight against militiasthe paramilitary forces that were born in Rio de Janeiro and already operate in half the country. “No sentence is restorative of absence. It is not happiness that I feel, but relief at seeing, for the first time, some materiality and responsibility with all that,” wrote Mônica Benício, Marielle’s widow, on her social networks.
The reactions to the sentence were immediate. “If successive governments in Rio de Janeiro were not colluding with organized crime and bandits who kill in the name of the interests of the powerful, we would have Marielle among us. Justice has taken a very important step today,” Marcelo Freixo, who went into exile in Spain after receiving death threats, wrote on his social networks. The first lady, Janja da Silva, stated that Marielle Franco suffered the limit of gender-based political violence: “She saw her life interrupted, her voice silenced. But we are here, daily fighting for justice and combating all types of violence against women so that families like Marielle’s are no longer destroyed by misogyny.”
Antonio, father of Marielle Franco, after confessing calm after the conviction of the murderers, declared that the fight continues: “Now, the question we are going to ask is: When will the perpetrators (of the crime) be convicted?” Antonio was referring to Chiquinho and Domingos Brazão (politicians historically linked to the militia) and Rivaldo Barbosa, the delegate of the Civil Police of Rio de Janeiro who took office one day before the murder of Marielle Franco, appointed by Bolsonaro’s vice president, Walter Souza Braga Netto. The three are being tried by the Supreme Federal Court (STF), since they have a privileged forum.
Who had Marielle killed?
During the first day of the trial, the murderers revealed that the crime had real estate motivations. Chiquinho Brazão, who chaired the Urban Affairs Commission of the plenary session of Rio de Janeiro, legislated to regularize an illegal condominium in Jacarepaguá, one of the territories where militia It has more implementation. Marielle Franco was opposed to the Brazão’s real estate speculation and was fighting so that low-income people could occupy said land.
The involvement of Chiquinho and Domingos Brazão in the death of Marielle Franco, anticipated in January by Intercept Brasil in January, was an open secret. However, police delegate Rivaldo Barbosa’s connivance with the crime was a real surprise, since Marielle Franco’s family blindly trusted his commitment. The Federal Police (PF) report accused Barbosa of obstructing investigations into the murder of Marielle Franco, as well as the crimes of the Escritório do Crime, the faction of the militia supported by the Brazão brothers.
The “federalization” of the Marielle crime investigation put the case in the hands of the central government and paved the way for the Lula government to present the Proposed Constitutional Amendment (PEC) of Justice, a new regulatory framework that allows the Police Federal intervene against the militias. “This already happened in the case of Marielle Franco. The Rio de Janeiro police took five years to elucidate the crime, and they did not do so. The Federal Police entered with seven men and revealed this regrettable crime,” said Ricardo Lewandoski, Minister of Justice and Public Security, yesterday, while presenting the PEC to the governors of the 27 states of Brazil.
After the sentence against Ronnie Lessa and Élcio Queiroz, two questions once again took over Brazilian social networks, “Who ordered Marielle to be killed?” and “Who covered up the crime?” The second indirectly points to Jair Bolsonaro. For many, the fact of naming a police delegate as conniving with the crime a day before it raises a new question: Did the former president know that Marielle Franco was going to be murdered?
Bolsonaro, in the shadows
The Bolsonaro family has historical ties with the Brazão brothers. Chiquinho Brazão and Flávio Bolsonaro grew up together politically, first as councilors and later as regional deputies. Flávio Bolsonaro voted in favor of Domingos Brazão to take over the State Accounting Court (TCU), a position he held before being arrested last March. Both families are umbilically linked to the Escritório do Crime, a kind of elite gunman agency specialized in assassinating those who oppose the real estate interests of the militia.
On the other hand, Ronnie Lessa, one of the most reputable hitmen of the Crime Desk, was a neighbor of Jair Bolsonaro in the Vivendas da Barra condominium in Rio de Janeiro. On March 14, 2018, a few hours before the murder of Marielle Franco, Élcio Queiroz, visited the Vivendas da Barra condominium. Élcio assured at the goal that he was going to house number 58, Jair Bolsonaro’s residence. The doorman told Globo TV’s Jornal Nacional that on the other end of the phone a voice he identified as Jair’s authorized his entry. Hours before murdering Marielle, Ronnie Lessa and Élcio Queiroz left Jair Bolsonaro’s condominium together. Furthermore, the Bolsonaro family was very close to Adriano da Nóbrega, leader of the Crime Desk, head of Ronnie Lessa. Flávio Bolsonaro employed his mother and his wife in his cabinet in the Legislative Assembly of Rio de Janeiro (Alerj). And he gave Antônio da Nóbrega a medal of merit. On the other hand, Flávio Bolsonaro’s most famous corruption case, the streakinhais related to real estate speculation. The Public Ministry proved that Flávio Bolsonaro confiscated 40% of the salary of his cabinet officials in the Legislative Assembly of Rio de Janeiro and gave it to Antônio da Nôbrega, who invested it in buildings illegally built by the militia.
The ball of the unfolding of the Marielle case is now in the court of the Supreme Federal Court (STF). The future of the Brazão brothers and the former delegate Rivaldo Barbosa is in the hands of Alexandre de Moraes, the supreme judge most hated by the Bolsonarism. Even so, it is difficult to know all the details of the crime that shook the world: Antônio de Nôbrega was mysteriously murdered in February 2020, while trying to escape his prison term. That day, Jair Bolsonaro described Nôbrega as “a hero.”
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