{"id":3919,"date":"2019-10-04T17:53:47","date_gmt":"2019-10-04T17:53:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/?p=3919"},"modified":"2019-10-04T17:53:47","modified_gmt":"2019-10-04T17:53:47","slug":"marielle-franco-murder-five-accused-of-obstructing-case-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/2019\/10\/04\/marielle-franco-murder-five-accused-of-obstructing-case-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Marielle Franco murder: Five accused of obstructing case"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Brazil\u2019s top prosecutor has accused five people of trying to obstruct the investigation into the murder of a prominent politician last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Two court officials and two police officers are among those named by Prosecutor General Raquel Dodge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Marielle Franco and her driver were shot dead in Rio de Janeiro, an event that ignited mass protests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The crime is believed to have been orchestrated by a criminal network, but no clear motive has been established.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In March, two former police offers were arrested in connection with the murders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ms Franco, an outspoken councillor, had been critical of the police\u2019s often deadly raids in densely populated shantytowns, or&nbsp;<em>favelas<\/em>, and denounced paramilitary groups run by retired and off-duty police known as&nbsp;<em>mil\u00edcias<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/extra\/FI4UOEvq3F\/death_in_rio\">A \u2018policy of massacre\u2019 in Rio\u2019s favelas?<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/world-latin-america-35167743\">An education disrupted by violence<\/a><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What\u2019s the latest?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On her last day in office on Tuesday, the prosecutor general said federal agents should take over the case to prevent interference in the investigation, which is being carried out by Rio civil police.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ms Dodge, who left office after a two-year term, said she had ordered the indictment on obstruction of justice charges of:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Domingos Braz\u00e3o, a former state legislator and adviser at Rio state\u2019s audit court, as well as Gilberto Ribeiro da Costa, his subordinate<\/li><li>Federal police officer H\u00e9lio Khristian Cunha de Almeida and Rio military police officer Rodrigo Jorge Ferreira<\/li><li>Camila Moreira Lima Nogueira, a lawyer<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to Ms Dodge, the accused tried to prevent investigators from identifying those who had ordered the crime, and fed the police false information to derail the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mr Braz\u00e3o denied the allegations while the other accused could not be immediately reached for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The indictments and the transfer of the investigation to federal authorities need to be approved by Brazil\u2019s Superior Court of Justice (STJ).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What\u2019s the case about?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ms Franco, who grew up in a poor neighbourhood of Rio, was returning from an event encouraging black women\u2019s empowerment in central Rio on 14 March 2018 when a car drew up alongside hers and nine shots rang out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The two suspects arrested in March were Ronnie Lessa, accused of being the gunman, and \u00c9lcio Vieira de Queiroz, the alleged driver. They both deny any involvement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Brazil\u2019s top prosecutor has accused five people of trying to obstruct the investigation into the murder of a prominent politician last year. Two court officials and two police officers are among those named by Prosecutor General Raquel Dodge. Marielle Franco and her driver were shot dead in Rio de Janeiro, an event that ignited mass protests. The crime is believed&#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/2019\/10\/04\/marielle-franco-murder-five-accused-of-obstructing-case-2\/\">Read more &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":152,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/152"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3919"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3919\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3920,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3919\/revisions\/3920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}