Six years, 7 months and 17 days after the crime, justice has been served. “Justice is sometimes slow, it is blind, it is stupid, it is unjust, it is false, it is twisted, but it happens. “Justice comes even for those who, like the accused, think that they will always be protected from justice,” said Lúcia Glioche, judge of the 4th Tribunal do Júri of Rio de Janeiro, on Thursday before reading the sentence against the assassins of Rio de Janeiro city councilor 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 shook an entire country and shook international public opinion: 78 years in prison for Ronnie Lessa, the author of the shooting; 59 years for Élcio Queiroz, the driver of the vehicle. In addition, the two men will have to pay compensation of R$3,530,000 (nearly 600,000 euros) to the victims’ relatives and assume the costs of the legal proceedings.
After the sentencing, emotion erupted in a room full of Marielle Franco supporters. 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 born in Rio de Janeiro and already operating in half of the country. “No punishment makes up for an absence. It’s not happiness that I feel, but relief to see, for the first time, a little materiality and responsibility with all of this,” wrote Mônica Benício, Marielle’s widow, on her social networks.
Reactions to the sentence were immediate. “If successive governments in Rio de Janeiro were not in collusion 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. First lady Janja da Silva said Marielle Franco experienced the limits of gender-based political violence: “She saw her life interrupted, her voice silenced. But we are here, fighting daily for justice and fighting against all forms of violence against women, so that families like Marielle’s are no longer destroyed by misogyny.
Antonio, father of Marielle Franco, after admitting his calm after the conviction of the assassins, declared that the fight continues: “Now the question we are going to ask ourselves is: when will the perpetrators (of the crime) be condemned? 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 a day before the assassination of Marielle Franco, appointed by Bolsonaro’s vice-president, Walter Souza Braga Netto. All three are judged by the Supreme Federal Court (STF), because they have a privileged forum.
Who did Marielle kill?
From 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 Rio de Janeiro plenary session, 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 fought so that low-income people could occupy this land.
The involvement of Chiquinho and Domingos Brazão in the death of Marielle Franco, announced in January by Intercept Brasil in January, was an open secret. However, the connivance of police delegate Rivaldo Barbosa in the crime came as a real surprise, because 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 militia supported by the Brazão brothers.
The “federalization” of Marielle’s criminal investigation put the matter in the hands of the central government and opened the way for the Lula government to present the Constitutional Amendment Project (PEC) of Justice, a new regulatory framework that allows the Federal Police to intervene against the militias. “This has already happened in the case of Marielle Franco. It took Rio de Janeiro police five years to solve the crime, but they did not. The federal police entered with seven men and revealed this regrettable crime,” Ricardo Lewandoski, Minister of Justice and Public Security, said yesterday, presenting the PEC to the governors of Brazil’s 27 states.
After the conviction of Ronnie Lessa and Élcio Queiroz, two questions once again invaded Brazilian social networks: “Who ordered Marielle to be killed? and “Who covered up the crime?” The second indirectly designates Jair Bolsonaro. For many, the fact of designating a police delegate as an accomplice to the crime the day before raises a new question: did the former president know that Marielle Franco was going to be assassinated?
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 advisors and then as regional deputies. Flávio Bolsonaro voted in favor of Domingos Brazão to take over as head of the National Accounts Tribunal (TCU), a position he held before being arrested last March. Both families are linked by an umbilical link to the Escritório do Crime, a sort of elite agency specializing in the assassination of those who oppose the country’s real estate interests. militia.
On the other hand, Ronnie Lessa, one of the Crime Desk’s most renowned hitmen, 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 assassination of Marielle Franco, Élcio Queiroz went to the Vivendas da Barra condominium. Élcio assured in front of the goal that he was going to house number 58, the residence of Jair Bolsonaro. The doorman told Globo TV’s Jornal Nacional that on the other end of the line, a voice he identified as Jair’s allowed his entry. A few hours before assassinating Marielle, Ronnie Lessa and Élcio Queiroz left Jair Bolsonaro’s co-ownership together. Furthermore, the Bolsonaro family was very close to Adriano da Nóbrega, head of the Crime Desk, boss of Ronnie Lessa. Flávio Bolsonaro employed his mother and wife in his office in the Legislative Assembly of Rio de Janeiro (Alerj). And he presented Antônio da Nóbrega with a medal of merit. In contrast, Flávio Bolsonaro’s most famous corruption case, sequenceis linked to real estate speculation. The public prosecutor’s office proved that Flávio Bolsonaro confiscated 40% of the salary of his civil servants in the Legislative Assembly of Rio de Janeiro and gave it to Antônio da Nôbrega, who invested it in buildings illegally constructed by the government. militia.
The ball for the unfolding of the Marielle affair is now in the court of the Supreme Federal Court (STF). The future of the Brazão brothers and former delegate Rivaldo Barbosa is in the hands of Alexandre de Moraes, the government’s most hated supreme judge. Bolsonarism. However, 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 sentence. That day, Jair Bolsonaro called Nôbrega a “hero”.
