The judge of the 1st Court Specialized in Criminal Organization of the Court of Justice of Rio de Janeiro Bruno Monteiro Rulière determined, in a hearing held this Thursday (17), the release of Elaine Pereira Figueiredo Lessa, wife of Ronnie Lessa, accused of involvement in the death of councilwoman Marielle Franco and driver Anderson Gomes, in 2018.
In the decision, the magistrate considered that, at the current stage of the process, there are milder personal precautionary measures that can be fulfilled by the accused. He even mentioned the possibility that the length of pre-trial detention had mitigated the risks of the danger that Elaine’s freedom would generate.
According to the judge, the time of provisional custody “reached the desired precautionary purposes” and the application of measures other than prison are “adequate and sufficient to ensure the effectiveness of the final decision on the merits”.
Rulière ordered the revocation of Elaine Lessa’s preventive detention, who cannot leave the District for more than 48 hours, without prior judicial authorization, nor maintain contact with other defendants and witnesses of this process and the related ones. Elaine Lessa will still have to appear monthly in court to inform and justify her activities.
Prison
Elaine was arrested on July 18, 2021, charged with international arms trafficking. Investigations began earlier, on February 23, 2017. At the time, an order with a sender from Hong Kong caught the attention of the Federal Revenue Service at Tom Jobim International Airport, in Rio.
16 flamebreakers were found for an AR-15 rifle, which serve to hide flames resulting from the firing of the firearm and not reveal the shooter’s position. Academia Supernova, which belonged to Elaine and Ronnie Lessa, in Rio das Pedras, in the west zone, was the recipient of the request.
Two days earlier, on July 16, 2021, Elaine had left jail after being sentenced to four years in prison for the crime of obstruction of justice, for disturbing the investigations of the Marielle Franco case with the disappearance of weapons.
She had been arrested in October 2019, after the Homicide Police Station and the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office’s Action Group to Combat Organized Crime (Gaeco) investigated that Elaine would have commanded the action to dispose of her husband’s weapons to erase any type of crime. evidence against him. It is believed that an HK-MP5 submachine gun, which was allegedly used in Marielle’s execution, was thrown into the sea. The weaponry was never found.
