Brazil Ex-Lawmaker Bags 50 Years for Murdering Her Husband
Close-up. Arrested man handcuffed hands at the back. Prisoner or arrested terrorist, close-up of hands in handcuffs, selective focus.
A Rio de Janeiro court sentenced former Brazilian legislator Flordelis Dos Santos to 50 years in jail on Sunday for killing her husband in 2019.
Dos Santos, 61, and her husband, pastor Anderson do Carmo, were a powerful couple in Brazil’s burgeoning Evangelical Christian movement until he passed away in a hail of bullets at their home in a Rio suburb in June 2019. They were well-known for adopting numerous street children from Rio de Janeiro’s slums.
Dos Santos was accused by the prosecution of “orchestrating the homicide, enlisting (several of her grown children) to participate in the crime, and attempting to conceal it as an armed robbery” in August 2020.
The couple’s funds, which Do Carmo, 42 at the time, maintained with “rigorous control,” were allegedly the motivation for the alleged crime, according to the prosecution.
Parliamentary immunity had previously shielded Dos Santos, but it was revoked after she was removed in August 2021 by nearly all of her colleagues.
According to the Public Prosecutor’s Office complaint, the former lawmaker was also found guilty of forging documents, armed criminal association, and at least six prior attempts to poison her husband.
Dos Santos was chosen to serve in Congress in 2018 on behalf of the Social Democratic Party.
She was born in Jacarezinho, a favela or slum in Rio, and they first connected in 1994.
They established the Community of the Evangelical Ministry Flordelis together.
In the trial, five further children of the parents and a granddaughter were also charged.
The former congresswoman’s biological daughter, Simone dos Santos Rodrigues, received a similar sentence on Sunday: 31 years in prison, while four adopted children and a granddaughter received not guilty verdicts.
Both the family member who purchased the pistol and one of Dos Santos’ biological sons who is suspected of being the shooter were convicted a year ago.
AFP
