Brazil’s Supreme Court imposes steep sentences for Marielle Franco murder

A panel of Brazil’s Supreme Court has decided to convict five men accused of plotting the 2018 assassination of human rights activist-turned-politician Marielle Franco and her driver, Anderson Gomes.

The panel’s judges were unanimous in Wednesday’s decision, which marked the culmination of a closely watched trial that raised questions about polarization, corruption and race in Brazilian society.

“Human justice is not capable of assuaging this pain,” Judge Carmen Lucia told the victims’ families as the court handed down decades-long sentences to the five defendants.

At the time of his death, Franco, 38, was a municipal councilor for the city of Rio de Janeiro, just a year into his term. She was considered a promising member of the left-wing Socialism and Freedom Party.

A black woman from the favelas – Brazil’s densely populated, poor neighborhoods – Franco was best known for her campaigning for the rights of LGBTQ people, racial minorities and women.

She also used her platform to denounce excessive police violence in the favelas, as well as illegal land appropriations by local authorities.

On March 14, 2018, after an evening of debate in Rio de Janeiro, a car stopped next to the vehicle carrying Franco and Gomes.

The attacker fired 13 bullets at their vehicle. Franco and Gomes were killed and an aide also traveling in the vehicle was injured.

Prosecutors called the attack an assassination, intended to silence Franco and prevent him from opposing powerful interests.

In their ruling Wednesday, Supreme Court justices found that former congressman Chiquinho Brazao and his brother Domingos Brazao – an advisor to the Rio State Audit Court – conspired to have Franco assassinated in response to his efforts to stop illegal land grabs.

The two brothers had profited from efforts to claim public land in Rio de Janeiro for private development. Previously, they were considered one of 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 ruling.

Long prison sentences were also imposed on three of their co-defendants. One of them, Robson Calixto Fonseca, was an assistant to the Brazao brothers and was sentenced to nine years in prison for criminal conspiracy.

The other two were law enforcement officers. Former police investigator Rivaldo Barbosa was sentenced to 18 years in prison for passive corruption and obstruction of justice. Police officer Ronald Paulo Alves Pereira was sentenced to 56 years in prison for murder and attempted murder.

The five men convicted in Wednesday’s ruling have denied responsibility for the crime.

Prosecutors credited information provided by the two men who carried out the car attack with revealing the involvement of their five alleged co-conspirators.

These suspects had previously been 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 eventually signed plea deals that led to the Brazao brothers’ arrest, according to prosecutors. Lessa and Queiroz were sentenced to 78 and 59 years in prison, respectively, in October 2024.

Authorities also said the government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who returns to the presidency in 2023, had paved the way for a broader investigation.

In announcing his vote on Wednesday, Judge Alexandre de Moraes called these killings “the militias’ modus operandi,” carried out “to preserve financial gains and maintain political power.”

Human rights organization Amnesty International, meanwhile, called this week’s hearings a “litmus test” of Brazil’s “will to fight impunity.”