Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Naomi Campbell, Ava DuVernay demand Investigation into Killing of Brazilian Activist Marielle Franco

Activist Marielle Franco, who fought for the rights of Afro-Brazilians, LGBT people, and women, was 2 weeks ago shot 4 times in the head.

Franco, a 38-year-old gay black woman, had before her death, been a tireless activist against police violence, and had regularly spoken up for the poor.

She had been on her way back from a gathering of young black activists when the 9 bullets were fired into the car she was riding in and killed her and her driver Anderson Pedro Gomes.

39 prominent people, made up of activists, journalists, writers, actors, including Nigerians Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Ayo Obe, have called for an independent investigation into her killing.

See the statement below, as published by Guardian.

Last week one of Brazil’s most courageous social leaders was brutally assassinated on the streets of Rio de Janeiro. Marielle Franco, a city councilwoman and human rights defender, was shot four times in the head by unknown assailants in a passing vehicle shortly after leaving a gathering of young black activists. Her driver, Anderson Pedro Gomes, was also killed.

Long before being elected to Rio’s city council in 2016, Marielle was widely known as a tireless and fearless advocate for the rights of Afro-Brazilians, LGBT people, women and low-income communities. A gay black woman born and raised in one of Rio’s poorest neighbourhoods, she campaigned relentlessly against spiralling police violence in the city’s favelas.

Marielle’s activism earned her many powerful enemies. She vehemently challenged the impunity surrounding extrajudicial killings of black youth by security forces and, two days before her death, had denounced the police’s role in the killing of a young black man named Matheus Melo. She was a leading critic of the military intervention in Rio de Janeiro and was the head of a city commission tasked with monitoring the intervention.

We are deeply concerned and shocked by this commando-style killing of a woman who was a voice for the voiceless and a symbol of resistance to state-perpetrated violence, militarisation and anti-democratic forces. Given that Marielle’s murder bears all the hallmarks of a targeted assassination, we call for the creation of an independent commission comprised of prominent and respected national and international human rights and legal experts and tasked with carrying out an independent investigation of the murder of Marielle Franco with the full cooperation of state judicial and police authorities.

Shortly before her death, Marielle asked: “How many others will have to die before this war will end?” We call for justice for Marielle Franco and the daughter and the partner she leaves behind, and for an end to the killings and criminalisation of activists, government opponents and low-income people in Brazil.
Ava DuVernay Film-maker
Rev Jesse Jackson Civil rights activist
Anielle Silva Sister of Marielle Franco
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Author
Arundhati Roy Author
Angela Davis Distinguished professor emerita, University of California, Santa Cruz
Janelle Monáe Singer and actress
Edward Snowden Whistleblower and president of the Freedom of Press Foundation
Shami Chakrabarti UK shadow attorney general
Naomi Campbell Model and activist
Ta-Nehisi Coates Author and journalist
Noam Chomsky Professor emeritus of linguistics at MIT, political theorist
Patrisse Cullors Co-founder of Black Lives Matter, LGBT activist
David Miranda First LGBT Rio city councillor, PSOL
Glenn Greenwald Journalist
Bertha Zúñiga Cáceres Daughter of the late Berta Cáceres, general coordinator of the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organisations of Honduras (COPINH)
Wagner Moura Brazilian actor and director
Luciana Genro Founder of PSOL, former presidential candidate, Brazil
Marcelo Freixo Rio state representative, PSOL, Defence of Human Rights & Citizenship chair
Linda Sarsour National co-chair of the Women’s March on Washington, former executive director of the Arab American Association of New York
Ayo Obe President of Nigeria’s Civil Liberties Organisation
Baltasar Garzón International human rights lawyer
Thandie Newton Actress and activist
Celso Amorim Former Brazilian foreign minister
Danny Glover Actor, film director, and activist
Naomi Klein Author and journalist
Gael García Bernal Actor and director
Shaun King Journalist and civil rights activist
Pamela Anderson Actress and activist
Alfonso Cuarón Film-maker
Opal Tometi Co-Founder of Black Lives Matter, executive director at Black Alliance for Just Immigration
Oliver Stone Film-maker
Yanis Varoufakis Former Greek finance minister
Viggo Mortensen Actor
Renata Avila Guatemalan human rights lawyer
Owen Jones Journalist
Slavoj Žižek Philosopher, Birkbeck Institute for Humanities
Chris Williamson Labour MP

Photo Credit: @JoeyGMueller