Marielle case: Justice denies new request for transfer of accused in the death of the councilor

The head judge of the 5th Federal Court of Campo Grande (MS), Luiz Augusto Iamassaki Fiorentino, denied a new request from Ronnie Lessa's defense for him to be transferred to the Military Police Prison Unit, in Niterói (RJ), in the metropolitan region of Rio. The former military police officer is accused of the death of councilor Marielle Franco and driver Anderson Gomes, on March 14, 2018.

Lessa's defense claimed that he has been in a federal prison for five years, confined and without any contact with the outside world.

The Federal Court of Campo Grande's office reported that “there was a decision from the 5th Federal Court rejecting the request for reconsideration of the defense and maintaining the content of the decision that renewed Ronnie Lessa's period of stay in the federal penitentiary system”.

Permanence

On April 3 of this year, the Federal Court decided to renew Ronnie Lessa's detention in the Campo Grande federal prison for another year. With the decision, Lessa will remain in place until March 2025.

Ronnie Lessa's term of stay had ended on March 21, but was renewed by a decision by federal judge Luiz Augusto Iamassaki Fiorentini, corrections officer at the penitentiary. If the deadline had not been renewed, Lessa would have returned to Rio's penal system, where she faces several cases in the capital's 4th Criminal Court.

Lessa is one of the whistleblowers in the Marielle case and named the Brazão brothers in his testimony as those who ordered the murder. According to him, Domingos Brazão, counselor at the Rio Court of Auditors, and Chiquinho Brazão, federal deputy (no party-RJ), were involved in the murder of the councilwoman.

They were arrested by order of Minister Alexandre de Moraes, of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), and are also in federal prisons. The defense of the accused denies the accusations.