The sister, left, and widow of slain Brazilian councilwoman Marielle Franco embrace after a judge sentenced two former police officers for the 2018 murder of Franco and her driver Anderson Gomes, at the Court of Justice in Rio de Janeiro, on October 31, 2024
| Photo Credit: AP
A Brazilian judge sentenced two former police officers to decades behind bars on Thursday (October 31, 2024) for the 2018 murders of Rio de Janeiro city council member Marielle Franco and her driver.
Ronnie Lessa and Elcio de Queiroz, who pleaded guilty under a deal with prosecutors, were ordered to serve 78 years and nine months and 59 years and eight months of prison, respectively, for shooting Franco and Anderson Gomes in her car on March 14, 2018.
A rising star in Brazil’s Socialism and Liberty Party, Franco was a Black and gay progressive council member born in a poor Rio neighborhood. Her death at 38 sparked nationwide protests by Brazilians fed up with endemic violence.
Brazil’s justice minister has said Franco’s plans to create housing for the poor ran afoul of powerful interests. “Justice is being served even though the meaning of justice will never be complete for us after the loss of Marielle,” Anielle Franco, the politician’s sister and Brazil’s racial equality minister, said on Thursday after the sentencing.
FILE – Councilwoman Marielle Franco poses for a photo at Cinelandia square in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Jan. 9, 2018. Franco was shot to death in 2018. (AP Photo/Ellis Rua, File)
| Photo Credit:
Ellis Rua
Three other men remain under investigation in the ordering and planning of the attack carried out by Lessa and Queiroz.
The two former officers will only serve 30 years, prosecutor Eduardo Martins told journalists, since at the time of the attack, Brazilian law did not provide for longer sentences.
The decision can be appealed. Lessa and Queiroz’s lawyers did not speak with journalists after the sentencing.
Published – November 01, 2024 07:48 am IST
