Four men, including two politicians, were found guilty on Wednesday in the assassination of Marielle Franco, a Black, gay, feminist councilwoman in Rio de Janeiro who achieved global renown for fighting corruption and systemic racism and whose 2018 killing set off a lengthy quest for justice.
The ruling by Brazil’s Supreme Court was the culmination of a case that had sparked angry calls for answers in the murder of Ms. Franco, who spoke up for marginalized communities and criticized the impunity that has long shielded the police, politicians and other powerful figures in Brazil.
Ms. Franco, 38, and her driver, Anderson Pedro Gomes, 39, were killed on March 14, 2018, when a gunman sprayed their car with bullets as they left an event in Rio de Janeiro about empowering Black women.
Since then, Ms. Franco’s case has become a rallying cry for many who identified with her and her causes. “Who killed Marielle Franco?” was ubiquitous, scrawled in graffiti, emblazoned on T-shirts and printed on protest banners.
That question weighed on Brazil for years, until investigators in 2024 zeroed in on two brothers, Domingos and Chiquinho Brazão, both of whom had also served on Rio’s City Council. The brothers were accused of ordering Ms. Franco’s killing and colluding with others to plan the crime, then obstruct the investigation.
The killing, said Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who oversaw the case, was an attempt to silence Ms. Franco and issue a warning against speaking out about graft and paramilitary groups made up of former police officers that wield a powerful grip on many neighborhoods.
On Wednesday, a four-member panel of Supreme Court justices unanimously found the Brazão brothers, along with a former Rio police chief and a military police officer, guilty of homicide in the murders of Ms. Franco and Mr. Gomes.
Ms. Franco’s sister, Anielle Franco, has carried forward her campaign and gained prominence as a leading anti-violence advocate. She became Brazil’s first minister of racial equality in 2023.
She celebrated the verdicts on social media. “It has been eight years of waiting for justice,” she said on Instagram. “Nothing will bring Mari back, but honoring her memory and her legacy is a life mission.”
All the defendants had denied any connection with Ms. Franco’s killing. Domingos and Chiquinho Brazão were each sentenced to about 76 years in prison.
The Brazão brothers enlisted Ronald Paulo Alves Pereira, a military police officer, to follow Ms. Franco’s movements as they targeted her, prosecutorial evidence showed. After her killing, Rivaldo Barbosa de Araújo Júnior, who was Rio’s police chief at the time, worked to stifle the investigation, according to the prosecution. Mr. Pereira was sentenced to 56 years in prison and Mr. Barbosa to 18 years.
“Marielle was a poor Black woman who was challenging the interests of militias. What stronger message could be sent?” Justice Moraes told the court, adding that her activism had interfered with the business interests of the Brazão brothers. “They didn’t expect such a huge repercussion.”
Unraveling the mystery of Ms. Franco’s killing should not have taken so long, the Supreme Court said.
“An absurdly flawed, slow, and negligent investigation that shows there were powerful hands pulling strings to prevent the proper uncovering of the crime,” said Justice Flávio Dino.
Chiquinho Brazão served with Ms. Franco on Rio’s City Council and was elected to Congress shortly after her killing. Domingos Brazão was a Rio city councilor from 1997 to 1999 before moving on to state legislature and then the state court system. Over the course of nearly three decades in public office, he has been accused of vote-buying and another killing, though those cases were eventually closed.
The Supreme Court ruling came weeks before the anniversary of Ms. Franco’s killing. It was all the more notable because police violence against poor Black Brazilians is common and rarely leads to anyone being held to account.
Ms. Franco had been seen as a rising political star. She grew up in an impoverished “favela” on the outskirts of Rio, before being elected in 2016 as the only Black woman on the City Council.
She quickly became an vocal critic of the violence plaguing her city, arguing it was rooted in chronic inequality and a corrupt police force.
One night in March 2018, Ms. Franco wrote a social media post about a young Black man who had been shot and killed as he was leaving church with his family. Ms. Franco accused the police of being involved, writing, “How many more must die for this war to end?”
The next night, she was killed.
Ana Ionova is a contributor to The Times based in Rio de Janeiro, covering Brazil and neighboring countries.
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