The cops who murdered councilor Marielle Franco in Brazil are sentenced to 78 and 59 years in jail | EUROtoday
The former army police officer and hitman who fired 4 photographs and killed Marielle Franco, a leftist councilor of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), in 2018 was sentenced this Thursday to a sentence of 78 years in jail. And his confederate within the crime, Élcio Queiroz, one other former agent expelled from the power who was driving the assault automobile that night time, 59 years outdated. Thus concludes the trial for probably the most related political homicide in recent times in Brazil. A jury of seven white males has discovered each responsible of the double homicide – Franco and his driver, Anderson Gomes – after deliberating simply over an hour after the ultimate arguments of a trial that lasted two days and was held in Rio. . The verdict was anticipated. The two defendants have reached collaboration agreements to disclose the plot in change for a diminished sentence. They will solely serve the sentence now imposed by the choose in the event that they fail to adjust to the awarded plea settlement.
Lessa, the shooter, has agreed to a most sentence of 30 years that might preserve him in jail till 2037 in change for denouncing those that commissioned and financed the political crime. Chiquinho and Domingos Brazão, two brothers, highly effective and shady politicians from Rio de Janeiro, have been arrested a couple of months in the past because the mental authors of the crime. A police commissioner was arrested in the identical operation for hindering investigations. The three are awaiting trial in jail, with no date but.
The homicide of Franco, a rookie councilor, who got here to politics by means of activism, black, raised in a favela, a mom and married to a different lady, brought on an infinite commotion. In a short while, fixing his case turned the good flag of the left, harassed by the intense proper, which got here to energy by the hands of Jair Bolsonaro a couple of months after the crime.
Those now convicted have been arrested on the primary anniversary of the deaths, however for years they solely broke their silence to proclaim their innocence. The investigation into the double homicide took a flip, in accordance with Franco’s mom, because of the political impetus given to the investigation by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva after years of false leads and little progress. For the households of the victims, the trial of the perpetrators is simply the start of the battle, which they’ve waged supported by numerous social actions, in order that justice is completed and people accountable are punished. The subsequent step can be for the Brazãos, who have been on the police radar from the start, to be tried and sentenced.
https://elpais.com/america/2024-10-31/condenados-a-78-y-59-anos-de-carcel-los-policias-que-asesinaron-a-la-concejala-marielle-franco-en-brasil.html