The majority of Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court (STF) judges decided today to put on trial three police officers accused of obstructing investigations into the 2018 assassination of Rio city councilwoman Marielle Franco by militiamen. Rivaldo Barbosa de Araújo Júnior, Giniton Lages, and Marco Antonio de Barros Pinto were charged by the Prosecutor General’s Office (PGR) with criminal association and obstruction of justice during the homicide investigations.
The three defendants belonged to the Civil Police of the state of Rio de Janeiro, the agency responsible for opening inquiries and investigating crimes and murders. Chief Rivaldo Barbosa, according to the PGR, allegedly led a criminal organization within the Civil Police to disrupt homicide investigations, including the assassination of Marielle Franco and her driver Anderson Gomes.
Barbosa took command of Rio de Janeiro’s Civil Police one day before the double homicide occurred and chose Giniton Lages to head the Homicide Bureau and lead the investigations. Meanwhile, police commissioner Marco Antonio de Barros Pinto, known as Marquinho HP, was already working at that specific precinct.
According to the prosecution, the three officers hid evidence, framed innocent individuals, used false witnesses, and carried out unnecessary procedures to “guarantee the impunity” of the mastermind and perpetrators of the politically motivated assassination. Marielle Franco, a Black, lesbian woman born in a favela and an activist for the Socialism and Liberty Party (PSOL), was shot on March 14, 2018.
Read more about this topic: Killers of Marielle Franco and Her Driver Sentenced to 78 and 59 Years
Her driver, Anderson Gomes, was also killed in the attack, leaving her then-advisor Fernanda Chaves as the sole survivor. In February of this year, brothers Domingos Inácio Brazão and João Francisco Inácio Brazão were sentenced by the Supreme Federal Court to 76 years and three months in prison for ordering the assassination and for criminal organization.
At the time of the accusations, Domingos Brazão served as a counselor for the Rio de Janeiro State Court of Accounts, while his brother, “Chiquinho Brazão,” was a former federal congressman whose mandate was revoked by the Chamber of Deputies last April. Investigations revealed Marielle was killed due to her political and community work, which threatened the economic interests and territorial expansion of militia groups.
During that same February trial, Rivaldo Barbosa was sentenced to 18 years in prison for obstruction of justice and passive corruption. Meanwhile, Ronald Paulo Alves Pereira, a major in the Military Police at the time, received a 56-year prison sentence for monitoring the councilwoman’s activities and providing the executioners with vital information.
Read more: Marielle case: “The connection between the Bolsonaro clan and the militias is public”
The military police officer and former advisor to Domingos Brazão, Robson Calixto Fonseca, was convicted of criminal organization and received a nine-year prison sentence. Confessed assassin Ronnie Lessa, a former police officer and militiaman arrested in 2019, made a plea deal and was sentenced to 90 years and 11 months in prison in May 2025.
The driver for Lessa during the attack, former military police officer Élcio Queiroz, who has been jailed since 2019, was sentenced to 59 years and eight months in prison in October 2024 by the Supreme Federal Court.
