RIO DE JANEIRO, Feb 25 (Reuters) - A panel of Brazil's Supreme Court voted on Wednesday to convict a former lawmaker and four others for their involvement in the 2018 assassination of councilwoman and human-rights activist Marielle Franco in Rio de Janeiro, along with her driver Anderson Gomes.
All four justices on the panel found that former Congressman Chiquinho Brazao and his brother, Domingos Brazao, a councilor on the Rio de Janeiro state audit court, ordered Franco's murder to stop her and her political party from creating obstacles to their illegal land-grabbing scheme.
A rising star in Brazil's Socialism and Liberty Party, Franco was a 38-year-old Black and gay progressive council member born in a poor Rio neighborhood. The targeting of an elected official of Franco's stature shocked Rio de Janeiro, despite its long history of urban violence, and sparked widespread outrage in Brazil and internationally.
The ruling brings to a close an eight-year-long process to bring the men behind the high-profile killing of Franco to justice, in a country where murders often go unpunished.
The Brazao brothers, who were among the most powerful politicians in Rio de Janeiro, earned millions of dollars through a scheme that grabbed public lands in the city's west zone for private real estate projects.
Rivaldo Barbosa, at the time Rio's police chief, was convicted for hindering investigations. Two other men were convicted for being part of the criminal organization. All five denied involvement in the killing during the trial.
Franco and her driver were gunned down in her car after leaving an event on the night of March 14, 2018. The men accused of pulling the trigger, Ronnie Lessa and Elcio de Queiroz, former police officers, pleaded guilty and are serving decades-long sentences.
The Brazao brothers were arrested in 2024 after Lessa named them as the masterminds behind the murders as part of a plea deal with prosecutors to help investigators.
(Reporting by Fabio TeixeiraEditing by Bill Berkrot)
