The First Panel of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) has a majority of four votes to maintain the arrest of the three suspects of planning the crime and ordering the murder of councilwoman Marielle Franco and driver Anderson Gomes. The murders occurred in 2018.
Ministers Cármen Lúcia, Cristiano Zanin and Flávio Dino followed the vote of minister Alexandre de Moraes, rapporteur of the case at the Supreme Court, who ordered the preventive detention of the three on Sunday (24). All that’s missing is Luiz Fux’s vote.
The arrest order is analyzed virtually, votes are cast without in-person deliberation. The judging session lasts 24 hours and began in the early hours of this Monday (25), with an expected end date of 11:59 pm.
In addition to the rapporteur, the only one to have presented a written vote so far was Dino. He wrote that preventive arrests are justified in the face of a “criminal ecosystem” that would have been set up within the Public Power to cover up the authorship of the crime.
The brothers Domingos and Chiquinho Brazão, and the Civil Police delegate Rivaldo Barbosa, were arrested on Sunday morning (24) during Operation Murder Inc and were taken by the Federal Police to Brasília, where they arrived at around 4pm.
In the case of Chiquinho Brazão, who is a federal deputy, the Federal Constitution provides that his arrest must be assessed by the plenary of the Chamber of Deputies, which may keep him in prison or release him. The date of the session has not yet been announced, but it should take place in the next few days.
The main motivation for the murder of Marielle and Anderson, revealed in the PF investigation report, involves the dispute over the regularization of territories in Rio de Janeiro. At a press conference, the Minister of Justice and Public Security, Ricardo Lewandowski, stated that the police investigations led to complete clarification of who the perpetrators of the crimes were, in addition to the executors and intermediaries.
Marielle and Anderson were shot to death at an intersection in the central region of Rio de Janeiro, in March 2018, while they were traveling by car after a work schedule.
