- Nicolas Gomes De Brito said he would face discrimination in Brazil as he is gay
- South American prosecutors told London court he had shot a drug dealer dead
A Brazilian in a global murder hunt has been freed to walk British streets because a judge feared jails in his homeland would breach his human rights.
South American prosecutors told a London court that Nicolas Gomes De Brito, 25, was a drug dealer who had a rival shot dead.
He then fled to Britain and was arrested two years ago after an international police request and held in jail.
Yet despite an extradition treaty and what a British judge accepted was ‘a strong case’ against him, De Brito was freed in January.
He claimed he would face discrimination in Brazil because he is gay, to the surprise of police who say he left his wife there.
Nicolas Gomes De Brito, a Brazilian in a global murder hunt has been freed to walk British streets because a judge feared jails in his homeland would breach his human rights (pictured: the murder scene)
South American prosecutors told a London court that De Brito (pictured), 25, was a drug dealer who had a rival shot dead. He then fled to Britain and was arrested two years ago after an international police request and held in jail
But he won his freedom by arguing Brazilian prisons were crowded and he faced torture in custody.
Judge Briony Clarke ruled there were insufficient assurances of his safety if extradited, saying she was swayed by evidence on the poor conditions in the jail be would be held in.
Now De Brito is understood to have melted away into London, where he previously lived in a semi in Wembley. He remains on global most-wanted lists.
De Brito is accused of being in a feud with rival William Pereira De Paiva since 2016 after surviving an attempt on his life.
De Brito is accused of being in a feud with rival William Pereira De Paiva (pictured) since 2016 after surviving an attempt on his life
When a close friend of De Brito was shot and left paraplegic in 2018, he named De Paiva as being behind the shooting (pictured: the car at the murder scene)
Prosecutors told Westminster magistrates that De Brito began working with one of De Paiva’s former henchmen, a teenager known as JR.
When a close friend of De Brito was shot and left paraplegic in 2018, he named De Paiva as being behind the shooting.
De Paiva was arrested but was set free the next year when De Brito is said to have arranged for JR to kill him.
After jumping bail, De Brito is understood to have entered Britain as a tourist before overstaying illegally.