The Rio de Janeiro Public Prosecutor’s Office has charged three people for leaking information about the operation that arrested the killers of councilwoman Marielle Franco and driver Anderson Gomes.
Those accused are military police officer Maurício da Conceição dos Santos Junior; Jomar Duarte Bittencourt Junior (son of a Federal Police officer); and former firefighter Maxwell Corrêa Simões.
The Rio de Janeiro Court accepted the complaint on Tuesday (3) and removed the confidentiality of the case. With the acceptance, the defendants will now be held accountable for obstructing an investigation involving a criminal organization. The sentence can reach up to 20 years in prison.
According to the complaint from the MP task force, which CNN had access to, on March 11, 2019, the defendants exchanged messages via app with information related to the operation that would be launched the following day.
“I just received a report. There will be Operation Marielle tomorrow. From what they said, they will even arrest Brazão and Rivaldo Barbosa.” I’ll try to call him here… Have you spoken? Yes.”
The following day, a police operation arrested former military police officers Ronnie Lessa and Élcio de Queiroz, now informants and confessed defendants in the crime.
According to the task force investigating the case, the conversation about the leak had Maurício and Jomar as interlocutors, with the latter, known as “Jomarzinho”, informing “Mauricinho” about the occurrence, causing “embarrassment in the investigation”.
Investigators say that this ’embarrassment’ even delayed the work towards the end of the investigations.
“It is clear that the conduct of those denounced herein was decisive in delaying the conclusion of the investigations into the deaths of victims Marielle Francisco da Silva and Anderson Pedro Matias Gomes, causing not only incalculable harm to the personal rights of their family members and friends, but also imposing a herculean task on the state actors involved in the investigation of the crimes, thus violating the broad collective right that society has to enjoy a quick and fair state response to crimes of this magnitude,” says the complaint.
The task force requested the arrest of the accused, but Judge Daniel Werneck Cotta denied it and ordered precautionary measures. Police officer Maurício, for example, will be suspended from public office and have his gun license revoked.
Jomar, in turn, is prohibited from leaving Brazil and must appear in court every two months to inform and justify his activities, until the 10th of each month, starting in September; in addition to being prohibited from maintaining any contact with the co-defendants and witnesses.
The MP also requests the loss of public office if Maurício is convicted and the ban on exercising any public function or office for a period of eight years following the completion of the sentence.
THE CNN seeks contact with the defense of the three defendants.
The leak
According to the MP, another proof of the leak of the operation was the fact that the murderer Ronnie Lessa tried to escape from the condominium where he lived, in Barra da Tijuca, before his arrest.
In March 2019, around 4:20 am on the day of Operation Lume, Lessa was seen leaving the condominium where he lived and already on the other side of the street.
On Monday (2) of this week, Élcio de Queiroz gave testimony to the Supreme Federal Court, where the case against the alleged masterminds is taking place, and confirmed that Lessa knew about the operation.
“Jomarzinho called Lessa at night. Ronnie, he told me that there would be an operation to arrest him. I asked who would be arrested, and he said it would be ‘Doctor Rivaldo’. If he escapes and I am arrested, it will ease the situation, someone has to be arrested,” he declared.
This content was originally published in Marielle Case: MP indicts three for leaking operation that arrested perpetrators and suspects become defendants on the CNN Brasil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
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