Ronnie Lessa and Élcio de Queiroz have already confessed to having been the executors of the councilor and the driver in collaboration agreements with the justice system. The trial begins this Wednesday.
The Public Ministry of the State of Rio de Janeiro (MPRJ) reported, this Tuesday, that it will request the maximum sentence, of 84 years in prison, for the executioners of the former councilor and activist Marielle Franco and the driver Anderson Gomes.
The sentence that will be requested from the Jury Court for the defendants Ronnie Lessa and Élcio de Queiroz, who have already confessed to having been executors of the councilor and the driver in collaboration agreements with justice, will be decided in a trial that begins this Wednesday. The Jury Court will be made up of 21 ordinary people and from this group seven will be selected at random to form the jury that will analyze the case.
The two defendants were charged with double homicide, attempted homicide and receiving a vehicle that was allegedly used on the day of the crime, which occurred on March 14, 2018.
For the trial, prosecutors announced that they intend to hear from seven witnesses. The prosecution will have the testimonies of the only survivor of the attack, the journalist Fernanda Chaves, who was in the car with the councilor and the driver, as well as relatives of the victims and two police officers.
Lessa and Queiroz were arrested in Operation Lume, carried out by the MPRJ and the Civil Police, in March 2019. The defendants will be heard by videoconference, since Lessa is being held in the Tremembé Penitentiary Complex, in São Paulo, and Queiroz in the Papuda Complex. , a federal prison in Brasilia.
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In addition to the executors, last March, Brazilian federal deputy Chiquinho Brazão and his brother Domingos Brazão, a member of the accounting control body of the state of Rio de Janeiro, were arrested on suspicion of having ordered the death of the councilman.
Both would allegedly be linked to paramilitary criminal groups, known as militias, which illegally charge residents for various services, which dominate part of the city’s territory and, according to investigations, ordered Lessa to commit the crime.
Marielle Franco was a member of the Socialism and Freedom Party (PSOL), she was 38 years old, she was born in a favela and she dedicated all her political activity to defending human rights and fighting against the groups that control the popular favelas of Rio de Janeiro.
Source: Observadora
