BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court voted on Tuesday to indict three people, including a federal lawmaker and a former local police chief, accused of planning and ordering the 2018 murder of Rio de Janeiro city council member Marielle Franco and her driver.
All the judges voted favorably to start a trial against congressman Chiquinho Brazao, his brother Domingos Brazao, a councilor on the Rio de Janeiro state audit court, and former Rio police chief Rivaldo Barbosa.
Federal police had arrested the Brazao brothers in late March, after an investigation found they ordered the 2018 attack. Barbosa – who became police chief a day before the murder took place – was also arrested, after he allegedly helped the planning and later worked to sabotage the murder investigations.
On Tuesday, the five judges of Brazil’s Supreme Court’s first panel also voted to start a trial against other two people, who are suspects of being related to the murder.
Marielle Franco and her driver Anderson Gomes were gunned down in her car after they left an event on the night of March 14, 2018.
(Reporting by Ricardo Brito; writing by Luana Maria Benedito; Editing by Aida Pelaez-Fernandez)
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