The shooting of Franco, an activist, raised questions about political violence and corruption within Brazil’s government.
A panel on Brazil’s Supreme Court has ruled to convict five men accused of plotting the 2018 assassination of a human rights leader-turned politician Marielle Franco and her driver, Anderson Gomes.
The justices on the panel were unanimous in Wednesday’s decision, which marked the climax of a closely watched trial that raised questions about polarisation, corruption and race in Brazilian society.
“Human justice is not capable of soothing this pain,” Justice Carmen Lucia told the victims’ families, as the court handed down decades-long sentences to the five defendants.
At the time of her death, Franco, 38, was a city councillor in the city of Rio de Janeiro, just one year into her term. She was considered an up-and-coming member of the left-wing Socialism and Liberty Party.
A Black woman from the favelas — Brazil’s densely populated, low-income neighbourhoods — Franco was best known for campaigning for the rights of LGBTQ people, racial minorities and women.
She had also used her platform to denounce excessive police violence in the favelas, as well as illicit land appropriations on the part of local authorities.
On March 14, 2018, after an evening debate in Rio de Janeiro, a car pulled alongside the vehicle carrying Franco and Gomes.
The assailant fired 13 bullets into their vehicle. Franco and Gomes were killed, and an aide also travelling in the vehicle was injured.
Prosecutors have called the attack an assassination, designed to silence Franco and prevent her from pushing back against powerful interests.
In Wednesday’s ruling, the Supreme Court justices found that former Congress member Chiquinho Brazao and his brother Domingos Brazao – a councillor on Rio’s state audit court – conspired to have Franco murdered in response to her efforts to end illegal land grabs.
The two brothers had profited from efforts to claim public lands in Rio de Janeiro for private development. Previously, they were considered among the most powerful politicians in the city.
They were arrested in 2024, and both were sentenced to 76 years in prison as part of Wednesday’s decision.
Lengthy prison terms were also handed to three of their co-defendants. One, Robson Calixto Fonseca, was an assistant to the Brazao brothers and was given a nine-year sentence for criminal conspiracy.
The other two were law enforcement officials. Former police investigator Rivaldo Barbosa received 18 years for passive corruption and obstruction of justice. Police officer Ronald Paulo Alves Pereira was given 56 years for convictions on charges of murder and attempted murder.
All five men sentenced in Wednesday’s decision have denied responsibility for the crime.
Prosecutors have credited information from the two men who carried out the drive-by attack for revealing the involvement of their five alleged co-conspirators.
Those suspects were previously identified as two former police officers, Ronnie Lessa and Elcio Queiroz. They were arrested in 2019, accused of being the perpetrators of the double murder.
The two men ultimately signed plea deals that led to the Brazao brothers’ arrests, according to prosecutors. Lessa and Queiroz were sentenced to 78 and 59 years in prison in October 2024, respectively.
Authorities have also indicated that the government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who returned to the presidency in 2023, paved the way for a broader investigation to proceed.
In announcing his vote on Wednesday, Justice Alexandre de Moraes described the murders as part of a “militia modus operandi”, carried out “to preserve financial gains and to maintain political power”.
The human rights group Amnesty International, meanwhile, called this week’s hearings a “decisive test” of Brazil’s “willingness to confront impunity”.
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