Brazil - November 2024

On 31 October, a Rio de Janeiro court sentenced former police officers Ronnie Lessa and Élcio Queiroz to prison for the 2018 assassination of councilwoman Marielle Franco and her driver, Anderson Gomes, and for the attempted murder of Fernanda Chaves, Franco’s advisor, who survived the attack. The men admitted to acting on orders from two high-ranking politicians and a former police chief, and received sentences of 78 and 59 years, respectively. The court found that the attack was planned months ahead and was intended to obstruct Franco’s work on housing rights for marginalized communities. As a prominent voice against police brutality and an influential Black, gay woman born in a favela, Franco’s assassination became one of the city’s most high-profile murders, exposing collusion between organized crime and politics in Brazil. The families celebrated the verdict as a step toward justice and urged accountability for the masterminds behind the crime, whose trial dates remain pending.

Sources: Brazil de Fato, The Guardian, BBC, Pagina 12, OHCHR