Brasilia – The Minister of Justice, Ricardo Lewandowski, announced this Tuesday (19/3), that the Federal Supreme Court (STF) approved a plea bargain granted by former military police officer Ronie Lessa in the investigation investigating the murder of councilwoman Marielle Franco ( PSOL-RJ) and its driver Anderson Gomes. The act of approval was endorsed by the rapporteur of the case at the STF, Minister Alexandre de Moraes.
“The plea bargain is being processed in secret from the courts, obviously this minister did not have access to it, as is evident, but we know that this plea bargain, which is a means of obtaining evidence, brings very important elements that leads us to believe that soon we will have a solution to the murder of councilwoman Marielle Franco”, said Lewandowski. “This procedure strictly followed due legal process”, he added. According to the minister, the case is close to being clarified. He also praised the work of the Federal Police (PF), which took over the investigation of the case in February last year.
The investigation began at the Public Ministry of Rio de Janeiro, but, in five years of processing, it did not produce significant progress. As shown by Estadão, the investigation into the murder of councilor Marielle Franco and her driver Anderson Gomes was transferred to the Federal Supreme Court (STF). The investigation was being processed at the Superior Court of Justice (STJ).
The murder of Marielle Franco and Anderson Gomes completed six years on Thursday the 14th. Although those named as the perpetrator of the shooting and the driver who drove it that night on March 17, 2018 in Rio de Janeiro are arrested, there is still no information to be found. who ordered Marielle to be killed. Investigators have not yet revealed details about the motivation or who ordered the crime.
At around 9:30 pm, Marielle and Anderson were shot on a street in Estácio, in the north of the city, by seven shots, fired from inside a car, when they were returning from an event promoted by the councilwoman’s party, PSOL. Journalist Fernanda Chaves, then the parliamentarian’s advisor, was in the vehicle and survived the attack, only hit by fragments of glass. Since then, investigations have progressed slowly and several changes in command of the investigation have been carried out in recent years.
Last year, new developments in the case rekindled the hope of Marielle’s family members for information that leads to the mastermind behind the murder. The former military police officer who participated in the execution Élcio Queiroz, driver of the car used by the criminals for the crime, closed a plea bargain in 2023 and brought to light new pieces that reveal the planning and unfolding of the murders.
At the beginning of this year, another person involved in the crime also decided to speak to the courts. Former Rio military police officer Ronnie Lessa, accused of killing Marielle and Anderson, reached a plea agreement with the Federal Police (PF). Lessa’s plea still needs to be approved by the Superior Court of Justice (STJ). The person who carried out the crime, according to investigations into the case, cited the counselor at the Rio de Janeiro State Court of Auditors (TCE) Domingos Inácio Brazão as the intellectual author of the murders, according to the website The Intercept Brasil.
The investigation to determine who ordered the executions is being processed at the Superior Court of Justice. According to the director general of the Federal Police, Andrei Rodrigues, the expectation is that the case will have an outcome in the first quarter of this year. See what is known so far about the case:
Who are those involved
Ronnie Lessa is a former military police officer and has been in pre-trial detention since March 2019, after being named as the main suspect responsible for the murders. According to Queiroz’s statement, Lessa was the author of the shots that killed Marielle and Anderson in March 2018. Preventively detained since March 2019, Élcio Queiroz is also a former PM and was the driver of the car that followed Marielle and Anderson through the center of Rio. On June 14 of this year, he made a plea bargain where he admitted his participation in the crime and provided new details of the execution to investigators. In 2020, he was sentenced to five years in prison and paid a fine for possession of ammunition and possession of firearms, ammunition and magazines.
Former firefighter Maxwell Simões, better known as Suel, would have participated in planning the crime and hiding the evidence, having provided, a year after the murders, a vehicle used to dispose of weapons that belonged to Ronnie Lessa. In 2020, he was detained “for deliberately hindering” the investigations. The following year he was sentenced to four years in prison. The former firefighter was arrested at his residence on July 24, 2023, and transferred to the Brasília Federal Penitentiary the following day, the 25th.
According to Queiroz, former military police officer Edmilson Oliveira da Silva, better known as “Macalé”, was responsible for inviting Lessa to kill Marielle and for providing the car used in the executions. He was murdered in the West Zone of Rio in November 2021, after being shot several times by men inside a white BMW vehicle. Also targets of the PF operation were Alessandra da Silva Farizote and João Paulo Vianna dos Santos Soares, known as “Gato do Mato”, who are being investigated for having received and discarded the murder weapons.
Ronnie Lessa’s brother, Denis Lessa, is accused of having received the materials used in the murder (murder weapon, cap, coat and silencer) on the day of the execution. Edilson Barbosa dos Santos, known as “Orelha”, is accused of being responsible for receiving the vehicle used in the crime from the hands of Ronnie, Maxwell and Élcio after the crime.
According to Queiroz’s statement, he was responsible for destroying the car in a car wreck. Denounced by the Public Prosecutor’s Office in August 2023 for impeding and embarrassing investigations into the case, he was arrested at the end of February this year. The PF also searched the homes of Jomar Duarte Bittencourt Junior, known as “Jomarzinho”, and Maurício da Conceição dos Santos Júnior, known as “Mauricinho”. They are accused of leaking information and alerting those responsible for the executions through electronic messages.
Execution of the councilwoman was planned
According to Queiroz, the alleged perpetrator of the crime was former military police officer Edmilson Oliveira da Silva, known as “Macalé”. He and “Suel” – nickname of former firefighter Maxwell Simões – were responsible for watching and monitoring Marielle since the last months of 2017. According to the PF, the car used in the homicide, a Chevrolet Cobalt, owned by Macalé, was spotted in places where the councilor fulfilled commitments. “In fact, it was through Edmilson (‘Macalé’) who brought, let’s say, this work to them. This mission for them was through ‘Macalé’ who reached Ronnie”, Queiroz told Federal Police investigators.
The superintendent of the Federal Police, Leandro Almada, stated that Ronnie Lessa researched the CPFs of Marielle and her daughter, Luyara Santos, two days before the crime. The fact was denied by the former PM’s defense. The weapon used in the crime was a submachine gun diverted from the Special Operations Battalion (BOPE), a special troop of the Military Police of the State of Rio de Janeiro (PMERJ), according to investigations. According to Élcio’s plea bargain, the weapon was lost from the corporation’s collection during a fire.
Executioners tried to destroy evidence
The PF reported that, after executing Marielle, those under investigation threw pieces of the license plate of the vehicle used in the crime onto the railway lines of Rio de Janeiro’s urban trains. Two days after the execution, Orelha was ordered to “disappear with the car”, according to investigations. The destination would have been a dismantlement in Morro da Pedreira, in the north of the city.
Maxwell would have helped hide restricted-use firearms and accessories belonging to Lessa, which were stored in an apartment used by the former PM whose location is still unknown. According to the PF, in March 2019, one year after the councilor’s execution, the arsenal was discarded in the sea off Barra da Tijuca, hindering the progress of the investigations.
Land regularization may have motivated the crime
One of the Federal Police’s lines of investigation into the motivation for the crime is a dispute over land in the west zone of Rio, according to The globe. In a statement, Lessa would have said that Marielle became a target for defending the occupation of land by low-income people and that the process was monitored by bodies such as the Institute of Land and Cartography of the State of Rio and the Land and Housing Center, of the Defender’s Office. Rio Public.
According to Lessa, the person behind the murder was seeking the regularization of a condominium in the Jacarepaguá region without respecting the criteria of an area of social interest. The objective would be to obtain the property title for real estate speculation. In an interview with EstadãoGeneral Richard Nunes, then Secretary of Public Security in Rio, in December 2018, stated that the councilwoman was killed because militia members believed she could disrupt business linked to land grabbing.
TCE advisor is once again mentioned in the investigation
Domingos Inácio Brazão was once again the target of accusations from those responsible for the murder of Marielle and Anderson, according to Intercept Brasil. In October last year, Élcio Queiroz cited Brazão in a complaint, which led to the case being referred to the STJ. In an interview with GlobeBrazão stated that the former Rio military police officer “must be wanting to protect someone” when naming him in a plea bargain as the person who ordered the crime.
“Lessa must be trying to protect someone. The police have to find out who. I was never introduced to Marielle, Anderson, nor Lessa and Élcio de Queiroz. I was never with them. I don’t have my name involved with militiamen. The PF will not participate in a setup like that, because everything that is said in an accusation has to be confirmed”, he said.
See what still remains to be unraveled about the case:
Masterminds of the crime
The question “who ordered the murder of Marielle and Anderson?” has not yet been answered. Last year, when he was Minister of Justice, Flávio Dino stated that Élcio Queiroz’s plea bargain would put those who ordered it in the crosshairs of the police investigation. “There is a kind of change in the level of the investigation. The investigation into the execution has concluded and there are elements for a new level, the identification of the masterminds,” said the minister in July 2023.
Dino also explained that there is convergence between the narrative of the driver of the car that took the executioners and the information collected by the PF. According to the minister, investigators now have the necessary elements to advance the investigation and identify other people linked to the homicides.
Motivation for executions
Another point that must be answered by the investigations is the motivation for the murders. Marielle took a stand against racism and police violence, reporting abuse of authority by security professionals. At the Rio de Janeiro City Council, she participated in a commission created to monitor the developments of federal intervention in public security in the State, which carried out operations to combat crime in communities in the capital of Rio de Janeiro. Dino also stated, last year, that “there is no doubt” that the crime involved the participation of people linked to militias and organized crime in Rio. (State Agency)
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Tags: Lewandowski announces approval plea bargain Marielle Franco case
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