“If I return to my country, death is assured because the victim was a gang leader and his friends will have me killed.”
Junior Sandro Edmison Otami Pereira, glasses and tattoo on his neck, appeared on Friday February 2 before the investigating chamber of Versailles (Yvelines) as part of an extradition procedure, requested by his country of origin for a assassination.
This Brazilian, aged 27, is suspected of having, on June 18, 2023, shot and killed Elton Antônio Bueno Zene, aged 23 in the town of Uberaba.
“In this case a woman was also shot,” said the president.
Shot and run over by car
The night of the tragedy, the victim was at a nightclub with his partner in this town, located in the west of the state of Minas Gerais.
An argument breaks out in the establishment between the victim and the attackers over custody of a child.
After the start of a fight, the young motorcycle courier leaves the scene before being caught by two car killers.
The assassins opened fire on his vehicle.
He injures the young man and the woman who accompanied him.
A few seconds later, they extract him from the passenger compartment and pass his body under the wheels of their car.
“They crushed his head and then dragged the body for around twenty meters,” said a magistrate.
The shooter was arrested shortly after the incident before being indicted for murder and attempted murder.
Elton Antônio Bueno Zene, aged 23, shot and run over by a car, on June 18, 2023, in the commune of Uberaba
Immediately after committing this crime, Junior boards a plane for France and takes refuge with his family in the Paris region.
Police officers from the national fugitive search brigade (BNRF) are responsible for finding him.
Initially, investigators only had a telephone number which was deactivated quickly after his arrival in Île-de-France.
“They managed to find a photo of the Brazilian before locating him using the data on his camera,” specifies a source close to the case.
Junior was hiding with his family in Val-d'Oise between Argenteuil and Bezons.
It was finally on the morning of January 23, at around six in the morning that the suspect was arrested in Bezons (Val-d'Oise) by the men of the PJ.
He is then presented before the judges of the court of appeal, responsible for implementing his presentation before the courts of his country of origin.
The boy confesses.
“I know I made a big mistake.
But I want to stay alive.
If I am imprisoned in Brazil, I would be killed, he explains, opposing his extradition.
I prefer to stay in prison for thirty years in France.”
A background of disputes between gangs
His lawyer, Me Louis Delvolve, recalls that this affair arose against a backdrop of disputes between gangs.
“My client had been threatened by the victim who was planning to attack him,” the council specifies.
He wasn't the one who shot.
He was behind the wheel and ran over the victim at the point of his partner's gun.
As for the dispute about the child, he is not the father.”
For his part, the attorney general requested the extradition of the South American.
“Nothing can be verified about this threat story and it is not possible to judge this case in France.
This man killed and he must be held accountable in Brazil,” demands the magistrate.
The court will deliver its decision on February 23.