Brazilian police said, based on a dental examination, that British journalist Dom Phillips owned the human remains found in the Amazon. The other body is still being identified, most likely by Bruno Pereira, an indigenous rights activist. Both of them disappeared on the 5th of June.
Phillips, 57, and Pereira, 41, were allegedly killed. Police said on June 15 that human remains had been found in the middle of the forest. A local fisherman, Amarildo da Costa de Oliveira, led them there and make a confessionHe shot the journalist and his assistant.
Dom Phillips
Photo: JOAO LAET / AFP
His brother, Osini da Costa de Oliveira, has since been arrested for denying any connection to the crime. An arrest warrant was also issued for a third person, Jefferson da Silva Lima, but the reason was not disclosed.
After the confession, Dom Phillips’ family thanked those who searched for the bodies for weeks, especially the indigenous groups who “worked tirelessly”.
Based on the information so far, the fisherman’s motive may have been that Phillips and Pereira documented illegal fishing in the remote Javari Valley bordering Peru and Colombia. The British journalist has been involved in logging, poaching, poaching and mining of wildlife in the Amazon for several years, threatening the world’s largest rainforest.
Police say the investigation prompted the perpetrators to act independently, rather than on superior instructions, so organized crime may not be in the background. However, a group of indigenous people working with Pereira believes that the brutal killing indicates organized crime active in the area. However, the police were alerted to the presence of criminal groups for several months to no avail. (BBCAnd the guardian)
We’ve written more about the joint work of Philips and Pereira: “They wanted to draw attention to the fact that the Brazilian government was looking after the interests of the criminals – and then they did not return from the Javari Valley.”.
