MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazilian Deputy stripped of immunity to stand trial for murdering her husband

Deputy Flordelis could not divorce so as not to “violate the name of God”

Brazil's Lower House Wednesday stripped Representative Flordelis dos, Santos de Souza of her parliamentary immunity, almost a year after the prosecution filed charges against her for having her husband murdered.

The decision was made by 437 favorable votes, with 7 votes against impeachment and 12 abstentions.

“You will put your head on your pillow and will regret condemning a person who has not been tried,” said the disgraced lawmaker. “There's still time to do justice. Don't kill me,” said the founder of the Ciudad del Fuego Evangelical Community.

The loss of Flordelis' mandate had already been approved by the House's Ethics Council, almost unanimously, by 16 votes to one.

Deputy Alexandre Leite (DEM-SP), who acted as rapporteur on the case had come to the conclusion that “the evidence collected both by this collegiate and in the course of the criminal proceedings are able to demonstrate that the represented has a way of life inclined towards the practice of conducts that are not consistent with what is expected of a representative of the people.”

Flordelis is accused of being the mastermind of the murder of her husband and fellow Pastor Anderson do Carmo, which took place on June 16, 2019, at the door of the couple's home in Niterói (RJ), where they also raised their 55 children, most of them adopted.

Dos Santos de Souza, who has all along denied masterminding the crime, faces triple qualified homicide, attempted murder, use of false document and armed criminal association charges. Due to her legal privileges whe could not be arrested before yesterday's decision but has been nevertheless wearing a monitoring ankle device since last year.

Flordelis had emailed her fellow Deputies Tuesday asking for “a chance for me to defend myself from an unjust prosecution of my own husband's murder. A chance for me to fulfill the mandate I was legitimately elected to. A chance for my dignity to one day be re-established.”

The now former lawmaker and religious pastor has been charged with masterminding the killing of her spouse, who was 18 years her junior, a feat for which she was allegendly helped by seven of her 55 children.

The scandal, which features religion, politics, orgies, blood rituals, mass adoptions, financial problems and ultimately a murder for hire is actually a real life story and not the script of a far-fetched soap opera.

Before marrying her, the victim had been adopted by the woman when he was just a teenager. He took 30 bullet shots at his home's doorsets. Many of those shots were in his genitalia. He was said to have been in agony for several minutes.

Investigators believe the crime was due to financial disputes and seven of the 55 children (51 of whom are adopted) reportedly participated in the planning.

According to witnesses, the pastors' church was the center of blood rituals and orgies in which the deputy herself participated together with her faithful and some members of her family.

Flordelis, 60, first adopted Anderson do Carmo, but things changed with the passage of time and they got married in 1994. Together they shaped a career that first projected her as a gospel singer and later as a pastor until she finally decided to try her luck in politics.

In 2018 she was elected federal deputy for the Social Democratic Party (PSD), which supported the candidacy of current President Jair Bolsonaro and had dozens of evangelical pastors among its bases.

The police maintains she had tried to poison her husband with arsenic before the murder. The prosecution identified at least six attempts. The investigation involved seven of her children as participants in the plot, one of them even as the actual shooter. There are 10 people altogether involved in the assassination, including a granddaughter of the couple.

According to the prosecution, De Souza “designed the entire criminal operation, prepared, encouraged and convinced other defendants to participate in the murder.” Her motive was that her husband kept strict control of family finances and did not allow privileges to be granted to her closest relatives.

Prosecutor Sérgio Luiz Lopes Pereira said she had told one of her children that she could not divorce so as not to “violate the name of God.”