“This is rotten, villainous journalism by TV Globo.”
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro threatened to cancel the license of Brazil’s largest TV network, Globo, accusing it of “villainous journalism” after a report connecting him with a former police officer accused of killing a Rio de Janeiro city councilwoman last year.
TV Globo reported on Tuesday that just hours before the March 2018 murder the suspect was alleged to have told a doorman he was going to Bolsonaro’s house, gaining access to a gated community where he met instead with another former police officer accused of murdering the left-wing politician Marielle Franco.
The case led to widespread protests by Brazilians outraged to see a black, openly gay human rights advocate gunned down. Investigators arrested two former police officers Ronnie Lessa and Elcio de Queiroz nearly a year later and charged them with killing Franco in return for about $50,000. Their lawyers said they did not commit the crime.
Bolsonaro denied any connection to the case. He said he was in Brasilia the day of the murder voting in Congress, where he was then serving as a representative.
The president accused the media and a former ally, Rio Governor Wilson Witzel, of conspiring to attack him and his family. “This is rotten, villainous journalism by TV Globo,” an enraged Bolsonaro said in a live video on social media.
Sources: Reuters, teleSUR.
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