On Wednesday, the Brazilian Congress House of Representatives voted in favor of stripping a prominent deputy of her seat after judicial authorities charged her with the murder of her husband. A total of 437 deputies voted for the expulsion of Flor Delise dos Santos, a religious singer and pastor in the evangelical church, while 7 voted against. The rapporteur of the case, Deputy Alexandre Leite, who recommended that Flor Delise be stripped of her membership and thus her parliamentary immunity, stated, "There is no doubt that Mrs. Flor Delise participated in the murder."
The 60-year-old Flor Delise dos Santos was well-known for adopting dozens of street children from poor neighborhoods in Rio de Janeiro. Together with her husband, Pastor Anderson do Carmo, they were a prominent couple in the evangelical Christian movement in Brazil until do Carmo was shot dead in June 2019 at their home in Niterói, a suburb of Rio de Janeiro.
Prosecutors in the state of Rio de Janeiro charged dos Santos in August of last year "with planning the murder, recruiting (several of her children) to participate in the crime, and attempting to make it appear as a robbery." Investigators said that Flávio dos Santos Rodrigues, Flor Delise's biological son, fired the shots that killed her husband using a gun purchased by Lucas César dos Santos, one of the couple's adopted children. The prosecution also charged five other children of the couple and one of their granddaughters with participating in the murder.
Prosecutors indicated that the motive behind the crime was suspected to be the appropriation of the couple's financial earnings, which the victim, do Carmo, 42, managed "with strict oversight." Dos Santos, who attended the session, declared to her colleagues that she was innocent, adding, "When the court acquits me, you will regret convicting someone who has not yet been tried."
Flor Delise dos Santos has not yet been arrested due to the immunity she enjoyed, but she is required to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet on her ankle. Dos Santos, born in a poor neighborhood of Rio, was elected as a member of the House of Representatives for the conservative Social Democratic Party in 2018.
