The Rio de Janeiro Court requested the extradition of the suspected mastermind behind the murder of North American gallerist Brent Sikkema, in January of this year, in Rio de Janeiro. Daniel Sikkema, the victim's ex-husband, was arrested in the United States on the 21st for passport fraud.
The Cuban who carried out the crime paid bail and is under house arrest, wearing an electronic ankle bracelet.
In the decision, published last Monday (1), judge Tula Correa de Mello scheduled a hearing in the gallery owner's case for June 3 and ordered the defense of Sikkema's ex-husband to comment within five days. The judge also refused the defense's request to revoke Daniel's preventive detention in Brazil.
He is named by the Rio de Janeiro Police as the mastermind of the crime. According to investigations, after the couple separated, due to financial differences, the ex-husband had planned the North American's death. According to the investigation by the Homicide Department, Daniel would have offered US$200,000 to fellow Cuban Alejandro Priana Prevez to commit the murder. He would also have given the key to the property, in Jardim Botânico, in the south zone of Rio, so that the executor could commit the crime.
In testimony, Prevez himself reported the agreement and confessed to having executed Sikkema, with whom he had previously worked, in Cuba.
The Public Prosecutor's Office in Rio denounced the two for the crime and had requested the inclusion of Daniel Sikkema's name on Interpol's red alert list.
“The formal complaint is perfect. All legal requirements inherent to the exercise of criminal action in casu are present, including the indispensable just cause. The process is regular and valid, with no defects that could lead to recognition of nullity. In effect, the facts and grounds deduced in the written defense do not rule out the evidence of authorship and materiality collected extrajudicially, requiring the investigation of the facts narrated in the exordinal of the present criminal action, guaranteeing the accused a full defense and contradictory ,” the judge wrote.
A CNN awaits the positioning of Daniel Sikkema's defenses. Alejandro Prevez's lawyer said he welcomed the judge's decision. “It was an extremely wise decision, considering that Daniel has an arrest warrant and that he has to come [ao país] to respond to Brazilian justice. We even see it as a possibility of reaching other possible articulators of this death”, stated Greg Andrade.
Source: CNN Brasil
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