A Brazilian law designed to ensure fair elections has kept police from arresting a 23-year-old law student who confessed to hiring hit men to kill his mother.
Adriano Saddi Lima Oliveira told police he paid 40,000 reais ($18,433) to hit men who killed his mother Marisa, a real estate tycoon, several months ago, a police investigator told local TV. Oliveira told police his mother was squandering his inheritance going out with her boyfriend.
Police wanted to arrest him but were unable to do so because of a law that prohibits anybody from being arrested five days before and two days after an election, unless they are caught in the act of committing a crime.
The law aims to curb heavy-handed tactics -- like a local political chief trying to hang onto power by having his opponents arrested on election day and locked up until polls close.
Brazil holds general elections on Sunday and police say Oliveira will be arrested next week.