The arrest came shortly after the immunity was lifted. Did the former MP, pastor and Bolsonaro supporter Flordelis dos Santos commission the murder of her husband?
Rio de Janeiro – A former Brazilian MP and evangelical pastor alleged to have commissioned the murder of her husband has been arrested according to media reports.
“I love you, believe in God,” said Flordelis dos Santos, who was carrying a Bible, when the police from Rio de Janeiro took her away from her home in Rio’s twin city of Niterói, as on the Brazilian television channel “TV Globo” on Friday evening (local time) was seen.
The public prosecutor in Rio brought charges against Flordelis in August last year and requested arrest on Friday after her loss of immunity. The 60-year-old is said to have instigated some of her more than 50 – biological and adopted – children to kill her husband. According to media reports, he was once also an adopted son of Flordelis.
The pastor was struck down with more than 30 shots two years ago in front of the couple’s home in Niterói. The murder was reportedly preceded by other unsuccessful attempts to kill it, such as poisoning. Investigators cited a family feud over finance and control as a possible motive. On Wednesday, the suspect was suspended from her political office.
Flordelis, known for her distinctive wigs, comes from one of the worst favelas in Rio. In the 1990s, she became famous for adopting dozens of street children who had survived a massacre. A movie has even been made about them. She founded an evangelical church fellowship and made the leap into politics.
The case concerns the media and the public in Brazil also because Flordelis is a supporter of the right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro and the often arch-conservative evangelical movements imported from the USA are gaining more and more influence on politics and society in the largest country in Latin America. dpa
