By Eduardo Simões
SAO PAULO (Reuters) – The Civil Police of Paraná has ruled out that the murder of PT militant and municipal guard Marcelo Arruda by federal penal agent and supporter of President Jair Bolsonaro Jorge Guaranho was a political crime or a hate crime, the corporation said in a statement. announce the conclusion of the investigation into the case this Friday.
According to delegate Camila Cecconello, who commanded the police task force responsible for investigating the crime that took place over the weekend, there are no elements in the investigation that would qualify the murder as a political crime, although she has stated that testimonies collected indicate that Guaranho went to the place to provoke Arruda because of her 50th birthday party, which had the PT and former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva as its themes.
Guaranho arrived at the party venue, a club in Foz do Iguaçu, shouting Bolsonaro’s name and playing songs alluding to the president and also pointed a gun at party attendees, according to police. After an argument with Arruda, he left the place promising to return.
When he returned, he shot at the municipal guard, who was the PT leader in the city, and was also shot at by Arruda’s retaliatory shots, videos from security cameras in the place showed. Guaranho has been hospitalized in serious condition because of his injuries since then.
According to the delegate, Guaranho’s return to the place of the party and Arruda’s murder occurred not because of a political divergence, but because the penal agent felt humiliated in the discussion with the PT.
“He went there in order to provoke the victim. So at this first moment it is very clear that there was a provocation and a discussion due to political opinions. Now, when he returns home and decides to return, there is not enough evidence in the file that he came back because he wanted to commit a hate crime against a person or people from a political party other than his own,” said the delegate at a press conference in Foz do Iguaçu.
“What we have is the testimony of the wife who says that he claimed he would return because he felt humiliated, because the victim would have thrown stones and dirt into the car and hit his wife and son. So, what we have within the investigation is the wife’s allegation, we do not have the allegation of this author’s subjectivity. It is difficult for us to say that there is a hate crime, that he killed because the victim was PT”, she added.
The delegate said that Guaranho was indicated for qualified homicide, due to clumsy motivation, and for causing danger to other people who were at the party at the time of the shooting.
The Public Ministry of Paraná informed that, upon receipt of the police investigation, it will work on preparing the complaint against Guaranho, without giving further details.
In a note, lawyers appointed by Arruda’s family to follow up on the case said that they had not yet been officially aware of the police report, but, based on information published in the press, they assess that the document “is full of contradictions and inaccuracies that demonstrate the deficient training the same”.
“Certainly, the necessary continuity of the investigations will demonstrate that our conviction regarding the political motivations of the murder”, they affirmed.
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