Chamber of Deputies maintains preventive detention of Chiquinho

The plenary of the Chamber of Deputies ratified the opinion of the Constitution, Justice and Citizenship Commission (CCJ) and maintained the preventive detention of Chiquinho Brazão (no party-RJ), suspected of being one of the masterminds behind the murder of councilor Marielle Franco (Psol- RJ) and driver Anderson Gomes, in March 2018.

Chiquinho Brazão was preventively arrested on March 24. The measure was authorized in a decision by Alexandre de Moraes and unanimously maintained by the plenary of the Federal Supreme Court. Now, the president of the Chamber, Arthur Lira (PP-AL) must notify the Parliament of the decision to the Court.

The case’s rapporteur at the CCJ, Darci de Matos (PSD-SC) agreed with the STF’s thesis that the arrest is justified by acts of obstruction of justice. “In our view, the state of flagrancy of the crime mentioned remains clearly established, either due to its permanent nature or due to the fact that the acts of obstruction continued to be carried out over time.”

In the plenary, 277 deputies voted to maintain the prison, 129 opposed it and 107 did not vote. In the CCJ, there were 39 votes in favor of the rapporteur’s opinion, 25 against and one abstention. All PL deputies, the party of former president Jair Bolsonaro, voted against.

Remember the case

Chiquinho Brazão was arrested on the same day as his brother Domingos Brazão, a counselor at the State Court of Auditors, and the former head of Rio’s Civil Police Rivaldo Barbosa.

The operation was carried out jointly between the PF, the Attorney General’s Office and the Public Ministry of Rio de Janeiro, after the plea bargain of Ronnie Lessa, who carried out the crime, who named them as the masterminds.

Editing: Thalita Pires