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Brazil’s Supreme Court has convicted two politicians for ordering the 2018 assassination of Rio de Janeiro councilwoman Marielle Franco, in a ruling that showcases the entrenched links between politics and organized crime.
In a unanimous decision on Wednesday, the court found former federal lawmaker Chiquinho Brazão and his brother, Domingos Brazão, a former state legislator, guilty of masterminding the killing.
Franco was shot dead in central Rio alongside her driver, Anderson Gomes, in a crime that stunned the nation and drew international condemnation.
Franco, a 38-year-old Black and openly lesbian activist raised in a favela, had become a prominent critic of Rio’s paramilitary militias.
Her murder in March 2018 sparked widespread protests and intensified scrutiny of the city’s powerful criminal networks.
Two former military police officers convicted of carrying out the killings were handed lengthy prison sentences in 2024.
According to the four-member bench, the Brazão brothers orchestrated the assassination in retaliation for Franco’s opposition to legislation that would have effectively legitimized land illegally seized by militia groups controlling vast areas of Rio.
Presiding Justice Alexandre de Moraes said the defendants were deeply embedded within the militia structure.
“They didn’t just have contact with the militia. They were the militia,” he stated during proceedings.
The court heard that Franco’s killing was intended as a warning to political figures in Rio. Moraes described her as “a Black woman who dared to challenge the interests of militia members.”
Rio’s militias originated decades ago as self-styled neighborhood protection groups formed by former police and security personnel to counter drug gangs.
Over time, they evolved into powerful criminal enterprises, accused of extortion, land grabbing and maintaining strong political influence in the state.
Brazil supreme court convicts two politicians over 2018 murder of Marielle Franco
