Two policemen arrested for the murder of Brazilian councilor and activist Marielle Franco

Two police officers were arrested Tuesday in Rio de Janeiro, accused of being the perpetrators of the councilor and human rights activist Marielle Franco. The chef was shot almost a year ago After leaving a political event, with the driver of the car that transported it, Anderson Gomes.

According to the site G1, the arrested police are the military police sergeant (PM) Roni Lessa, 48, accused of being the author of the nine strokesand Elcio Vieira de Queiroz, 46, who had been expelled from the prime minister, suspected of being the vehicle driver from which Franco and Gomes were slaughtered on March 14, 2018 in the heart of Rio.

Lessa was arrested in his apartment, in the same condominium where the current Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro has his residence, in Barra de Tijuca, west of Rio. Queiroz was arrested in a house in Engenho de Dentro, north of the city.

Marielle Franco has received five shots in the head and his driver three in the body. In the days following the crime, it was learned that the bullets used for the murder belonged to a lot purchased by the Brazilian Federal Police.

According to the prosecutors of the Special Action Group for Combating Organized Crime, the murder was meticulously committed scheduled for three months. The investigation is still trying to clarify, however, who ordered the murder of Marielle and why.

Marielle Franco, a black woman, bad and a favela, he fought for minority rights and denounced the police abuses against poor communities. He was advisor to the Socialist and Freedom Party (PSOL, on the left).

Violence has been accentuated in Rio since the end of the 2016 Olympics, with wars between drug gangs or against self-defense militias or security forces.