Justice postpones interrogation of lieutenant colonel accused of killing PM Gisele Santana

The testimony, which would end the pre-trial phase of the case this Friday (3), was rescheduled for August 28, after the defense requested the completion of an expert report prepared by the Institute of Criminalistics.

The decision was taken this Thursday (2), after four days of hearings at the 5th Jury Court of the Capital, during which 30 witnesses were interviewed, including the victim's family, police officers and experts responsible for the investigation.

With the end of this stage, the interrogation of the accused becomes the last act of the investigation before the final arguments of the parties and the judicial decision on the defendant's sentence - a phase in which the Court will define whether he will be subjected to trial by the Jury Court.

According to the defense, the postponement was necessary because the expert responsible for the report presented in the case did not respond, during the hearing, to all the questions asked by the technical assistant hired by the lawyers.

In view of this, the Institute of Criminalistics was asked to complement the document before carrying out the interrogation, a request accepted by the Court. Geraldo Leite Rosa Neto has been in preventive detention since March and is responsible for the crimes of feminicide and procedural fraud.

The Public Ministry maintains that he killed Gisele inside the apartment where the couple lived, in the central region of São Paulo, and altered the crime scene to simulate a suicide. According to the complaint, the motivation would have been the police officer's decision to end the relationship.

The death occurred in February this year. Initially, the case was presented by the officer as a suicide, but the investigation carried out by the Civil Police and the Scientific Police highlighted inconsistencies in the version.

The expert reports and other elements gathered during the investigation led the Prosecutor's Office to charge the lieutenant colonel with qualified homicide in the form of femicide and procedural fraud.

The defense denies the accusations and maintains the thesis that Gisele took her own life. While the criminal case progresses, the officer was transferred to the paid reserve of the Military Police. The corporation also initiated an administrative procedure to assess the possible loss of its patent, a measure that depends on the outcome of the judicial and administrative spheres.

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