In addition to the inauguration of Rivaldo Barbosa as head of the Rio Civil Police the day before Marielle’s murder, the actions of a public prosecutor also hindered the clarification of the case.

According to the Federal Police, the case only started after the investigation was taken over by Gaeco from the Public Ministry of Rio. (Photo: Freepik)

The Federal Police (PF) pointed out that there was a sabotage scheme to prevent the investigation of the murder of councilwoman Marielle Franco and driver Anderson Gomes from Rio de Janeiro’s investigative bodies.

In the report, the PF listed a sequence of three “coincidences”. They are: the inauguration of Rivaldo Barbosa as head of the Rio Civil Police the day before the murder of the councilor; the appointment of Giniton Lages to the Rio Homicide Police Station (DH) the day after the crime; and the actions of the Rio de Janeiro prosecutor Homero de Neves Freitas Filho, who, according to investigators, had a history of “missing conduct” in relation to investigations against members of the DH.

According to the PF, the investigation into the Marielle case was “cut to be stillborn”. Barbosa was the target of a preventive arrest warrant in an operation launched on Sunday (24). Lages was the target of a search and seizure warrant. In March 2018, having recently taken office, Barbosa appointed Lages to the police station in charge of solving the case.

For investigators, the sabotage began “at the most sensitive moment in the investigation of the crime, the golden hours”, which ended up leading to the loss of important evidence, such as images of the neighboring properties where Marielle was executed.

The PF also highlighted the “missing conduct” of prosecutor Homero de Neves Freitas, who began investigating the case by the Public Ministry. He was already the target of other processes that investigated him for omission in relation to abuses committed by the Homicide Department during Barbosa’s administration.

“Homero’s omissive conduct as a member of the Public Ministry of Rio de Janeiro is nothing new,” says the PF. According to the report, the investigations only began to advance “with the departure of Homer” and the entry of the Special Action Group for the Repression of Organized Crime (Gaeco) of the Public Ministry of Rio.

“In view of this entire context, it is clear that we are facing a typical case of ‘Cold Case’, based on the sabotage of investigative work by the apparatus responsible for investigating homicides in Rio de Janeiro, so that today’s criminal prosecution is left with the search by means of evidence that are not trivial to attempt to identify other authors and participants such as, for example, the award-winning collaborations entered into and the attempt to corroborate them by elements of conviction, even if indicative”, says the PF report.

The retired prosecutor said that throughout his 26-year career he has always been an active and diligent prosecutor and that the investigations mentioned in the report to date have not been concluded, with the punishment of the perpetrators of the crimes, which in itself already demonstrates that There was no lack of zeal on his part, nor on the part of the other colleagues who replaced him, but rather the great difficulty of the investigations.