Marielle Franco's killers sentenced to 78 and 59 years in jail

Marielle Franco's killers sentenced to 78 and 59 years in jail

More than six years after Brazilian councilwoman and Black LGBTQ activist Marielle Franco was murdered by former police officers Ronnie Lessa and Elcio Queiroz, in a murder suspected to have ties to drug trafficking, her killers were finally sentenced to 78 and 59 years in prison respectively on Thursday.

A Brazilian court on Thursday sentenced the two killers of iconic Black LGBTQ activist and councilwoman Marielle Franco to 78 and 59 years in jail, respectively, after a two-day trial over a crime that shocked the country.

Ronnie Lessa and Elcio Queiroz, two former military police officers, had confessed to killing the Rio de Janeiro politician and her driver Anderson Gomes in a drive-by shooting on March 14, 2018.

Lessa, who was sentenced to 78 years and nine months imprisonment, said he pulled the trigger. Queiroz, who drove the car, was sentenced to 59 years and eight months behind bars.

"Justice sometimes is slow to come... but it does come," Judge Lucia Glioche said as she issued the sentence.

Franco's assassination sent shockwaves through Brazil.

It cast a spotlight on the connections between police officers, powerful politicians and the militias that terrorize poor Rio communities, which Franco had denounced and who are suspected of ordering her assassination.


Read more on FRANCE 24 English

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