After five years, the Federal Police changed the interpretation given to messages exchanged between a police officer from the Homicide Division (DH) of Rio de Janeiro and a witness allegedly used to hinder investigations into the death of councilwoman Marielle Franco (PSOL) and driver Anderson Gomes.
Police officer Marco Antônio de Barros Pinto, known as Marquinho DH, was indicted by the PF on suspicion of obstructing investigations into the case, mainly based on messages he exchanged with PM Rodrigo Ferreira, known as Ferreirinha. In 2019, the corporation understood that there was no crime in the same set of dialogues.
Delegate Leandro Almada, current Superintendent of the PF in Rio, presided over the investigation in 2019 and also signed the report sent this month to the STF (Supreme Federal Court) on the Marielle case.
The PF in Rio de Janeiro stated, through its press office, that the 2019 final report pointed out irregularities by Marquinho DH. He said that the context was analyzed again when the corporation officially began investigating the homicide.
The corporation also declared that at the time of the first investigation it was not aware of the involvement of delegates Rivaldo Barbosa and Giniton Lages in the alleged obstruction of the murder investigation. The information is contained in the plea bargain of former PM Ronnie Lessa, accused of carrying out the crime.
The messages were also used to reinforce suspicions about Rivaldo, then head of Civil Police, and Giniton, then director of DH, in the report sent to the STF.
On the 24th, the PF arrested federal deputy Chiquinho Brazão and his brother Domingos Brazão, advisor to the TCE (State Audit Court), on suspicion of ordering Marielle’s death. Rivaldo Barbosa was detained on suspicion that he had helped plan the crime and hindered the investigation.
Giniton and Marquinho DH were search and seizure targets and are under electronic ankle bracelet monitoring.
Excerpts from the report sent to the STF indicate that the change in interpretation occurred due to information from Ronnie Lessa’s plea bargain.
In it, the person accused of carrying out the crime claims to have heard from Brazão that Rivaldo would act to divert the focus of the investigations. Such as Sheet showed, there is no corroborating evidence to confirm this point of collaboration.
The report does not mention the former PM to Giniton or Marquinhos DH. But the PF claims that the two acted intentionally in accordance with the intention attributed by Lessa to Rivaldo.
“Now that evidence has been brought that the origin of this plot, whose leading role falls on Ferreirinha, was created by Rivaldo and the Brazão brothers, as detailed by Ronnie Lessa when narrating the theme of the third meeting with the principals, DH created this curtain of smoke to, in a spurious way, present to society the much-demanded elucidation of the Marielle and Anderson case and shield themselves from actually investigating those people who are involved in the facts”, says the report.
The main suspicions against Marquinho DH revolve around his relationship with Ferreirinha. The PM approached the PF in April 2018 to identify, according to investigations, false masterminds of the crime. He accused former PM Orlando de Araújo, Orlando Curicica, and former councilor Marcelo Siciliano.
The federal delegates took Ferreirinha to the DH under Rivaldo. The PM gave a statement, and his report guided the investigation procedures for a period.
After identifying the hoax, still in 2018, the PF launched an investigation to find out those responsible for trying to hinder the investigations. The investigation led to the indictment of Ferreirinha and his lawyer Camila Nogueira in May 2019. They face a criminal case that has not yet been judged.
During the investigation, the PF had access to the exchange of messages between Marquinho DH and the PM.
At the time, the PF stated that “the majority of dialogues proved to be compatible with professional contacts in the search for information.” He pointed out, however, that “some actions identified carry signs that there has been improper guidance of the witness and manipulation of information.”
The investigation report, which became known as the “investigation of the investigation”, ended with the conclusion that there was no evidence of the police officer’s participation in the infiltration of the witness in the Marielle case.
“Despite the irregularities reported, I understand that it is clear in the records that state employees had no participation in the creation of the plot presented by the witness on 04/30/2018 at the Military Circle, as well as in the engineering of its emergence”, stated Almada in its report at the time.
In the report sent to the STF almost five years later, the PF states that the evidence of witness manipulation indicates that Marquinho DH had direct participation in Ferreirinha’s infiltration of the investigation to disrupt the investigations.
“The deflection of the investigation towards the false imputation against the duo Marcelo Siciliano and Orlando Curicica, through the use of the witness Ferreirinha, however, was the culmination of the obstructive measures taken by the duo [Giniton e Marquinho]”, says the PF report.
The change in interpretation of the messages becomes clearer when analyzing the conversation in which Ferrerinha asks Marquinho for help in arranging a battalion transfer. In an audio, the police officer states that Giniton would talk to Rivaldo to help him.
In 2019, the PF understood the conversation as a compatible professional contact, considered “normal considering the context”.
In the report sent to the STF, the effort in favor of the transfer was described as a “drive” to meet Ferreirinha’s request.
“In view of this entire scenario, it remained latent that Rivaldo Barbosa, chief of Police at the time, interceded with the general command of the PM so that the transfer of Ferreirinha from the 15th BPM to the DGP could be made possible, due to the services he provided in the dynamics of undue attribution of mediate authorship of the crime now being investigated to Marcelo Siciliano and Orlando Curicica”, says the report.
Despite Marquinho DH’s messages mentioning Giniton and Rivaldo, the two did not even have their conduct evaluated at the conclusion of the investigation that ended in 2019.
In addition to the messages, Marquinho DH is mentioned in the episode of the disappearance of the cell phone seized from someone being investigated for having cloned the car used in the murder of Marielle and Anderson. He was named by the suspect as responsible for carrying out the act.
Giniton, in turn, still has suspicions against him regarding failures in the collection and analysis of images and alleged collaboration in the failure to clarify homicides involving bicheiros and militiamen.
Rivaldo is mentioned by Lessa in his statement, based on reports that the former PM said he heard from Domingos Brazão. The counselor would have said, according to the whistleblower, that the delegate would divert the focus of the investigation to protect the real principals and executors.
Tags: Marielle assessment police officer suspicion Daily Life
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