RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Federal Police (PF) said, in a special briefing to the MP-RJ (Rio Public Prosecutor’s Office), that Civil Police detective inspector Rivaldo Barbosa should be investigated for the suspicion of having received a R$400,000 bribe to prevent the real culprits of the double murder of city councilor Marielle Franco and her driver Anderson Gomes from being uncovered.
Without naming names, the MP-RJ organized crime division (GAECO) has confirmed that it is investigating the matter. The detective inspector denies that he was bribed by anyone linked to the Marielle Case.
Barbosa, who once headed Rio’s Civil Police, is mentioned in a telephone conversation as having been paid a bribe, according to the PF report.
“Suspicions of alleged corruption have been raised involving officers of the Homicide [DH] Police, specifically the then chief of the Civil Police, Rivaldo Barbosa, and related officers, including detective investigators of the Homicide Police,” said federal police detective Leandro Almada in a document sent on May 2nd to the MP-RJ.
Almada headed the federal inquiry into a plot to obstruct investigations into the attack that killed Marielle and Anderson.
“The facts warrant a thorough investigation, in particular, an investigation of a financial nature, which either corroborates or rules out the possibility that [civil police] have used their positions and capacity for illicit gains, given the repeated accusations and indications,” said a document by Almada.
Those talking have to prove it, says Barbosa
Contacted by UOL, Rivaldo Barbosa said he was unaware of the Federal Police report and the content of the telephone conversation between city councilman Marcello Sicilliano and the militiaman Jorge Alberto Moreth, during which it was said that the detective had been paid a bribe.
He also denied having committed any irregularity while in charge of the Homicide Police or the Civil Police.
“There is nothing like that,” Barbosa said on the phone. “I worked hard at DH [the Homicide Police] and I was never paid anything by anyone.”
He would not comment on the Marielle case investigations. He said he had never hindered or obstructed the investigation. He further stated that anyone talking about alleged bribes must provide evidence of their existence. “Those talking have to prove it.”
The Civil Police said they would not comment on the matter.
Militiaman accused Rivaldo Barbosa
The militiaman Jorge Alberto Moreth claimed, during a telephone conversation with city councilman Marcello Sicilliano, that Rivaldo Barbosa had collected two payments of R$200,000 each, through a DH inspector in Rio identified as “Marcos”.
UOL had previously disclosed that Moreth had said in the same conversation that politician Domingos Brazão was the principal behind the crime and paid R$500,000 to the assassins for the attack that resulted in the deaths of Marielle and Anderson.
The telephone conversation took place in February this year and the file was found on Sicilliano’s cell phone by federal agents.
Known as Beto Bomba, Moreth is one of the militia leaders who works in Rio das Pedras, in the west zone of Rio.
Despite having said that Brazão was the principal, Beto Bomba has not clearly identified who supposedly made the payment to the detective inspector.
Sicilliano insists on learning which delegate Beto Bomba was referring to. Whether it was Rivaldo Barbosa, then head of the Civil Police at the time of the attack, or Giniton Lages, then heading DH investigations.
During the conversation, Beto Bomba says it was Rivaldo Barbosa and denies that delegate Giniton Lages was involved in the plot.
Exactly 21 days after the PF sent the report to the MP-RJ, on May 23rd, Beto Bomba surrendered. He had been at large as the result of an arrest warrant under Operação Intocáveis (“Operation Untouchables”), which investigates Rio das Pedras militiamen.
The MP failed to answer the reporter’s question on whether he has already been interrogated in connection with the phone call to Sicilliano.
GAECO confirms investigation
This is not the first time Barbosa has been mentioned as being involved in a bribery arrangement to stifle the Marielle Case.
In statements to the MPF (Federal Prosecutor’s Office) and the PF, militiaman Orlando Curicica claimed that the detective inspector and other officers were being paid money from criminals and militiamen to shelve homicide inquiries committed by the group of hired gunmen known as the Escritório do Crime (“Office of Crime”).
Barbosa has also headed the city’s DH and is currently in charge of the Coordination of Communications and Police Operations.
To UOL, the GAECO (Group to Combat Organized Crime) of the MP-RJ confirmed that it opened an investigation based on the FP’s report.
“The GAECO further stresses that all information is being rigorously checked and investigated in the procedures related to the Marielle Franco and Anderson Gomes case, which are being processed in confidentiality”.
Source: UOL