On Sunday (24), the Federal Police arrested federal deputy Chiquinho Brazão (Union Brazil, Rio de Janeiro state) and his brother, Domingos Brazão, a councilor on the Rio de Janeiro state audit court (also known as TCE-RJ, in Portuguese). They are accused of being the masterminds behind the murder of city councilor Marielle Franco and her driver Anderson Gomes on March 14, 2018.
Chiquinho Brazão was a Rio de Janeiro city councilor in the same legislature as Marielle Franco. He was elected to office in 2016 for his sixth consecutive term on the Rio de Janeiro City Council.
In 2022, he was elected federal deputy while in the Avante Party, and left office in December 2023 to take up the post of Rio de Janeiro's Secretary of Community Action in the government of current mayor Eduardo Paes (Social Democratic Party). Chiquinho Brazão's period in the position was short-lived, as he was removed from office in February 2024.
Domingos Brazão, like his brother, was an elected member of parliament in Rio de Janeiro state. In 1996, he won his first election as a city councilor in Rio’s capital city. He built his political career among voters in the western area of the city, the cradle of Rio's militias.
In 1998, he was elected to the state legislature in Rio de Janeiro and left office after five terms, in 2015, when he was elected to the TCE. During his political career, Domingos Brazão was affiliated with the Liberal Party, PTdoB (Brazilian Labor Party, later Avante Party) and MDB Party.
The Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry that investigated militias in Rio de Janeiro, set up in the Rio de Janeiro City Council under the command of then councilor Marcelo Freixo (Socialism and Freedom Party), accused Domingos Brazão of being a militia member and joining the group in various crimes in the state.
In 2011, Domingos Brazão's mandate was revoked on vote-buying charges in the 2010 elections. However, he was reinstated by Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court.
