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Dom Phillips researching indigenous people in Brazil in November 2019
Photo: Joao Laet / AFP
A forensic investigation in Brazil has revealed that the human remains found in the Amazon rainforest are those of British journalist Dom Philipps.
This is reported by the broadcaster CNN Brasil, citing police circles.
The Brazilian federal police confirmed the report to the Reuters news agency.
The cause of death has yet to be determined, the statement said.
The forensic examination, based on found teeth, is still ongoing for the second body.
It is assumed that the dead person is the Brazilian indigenous researcher Bruno Pereira, with whom Philipps was traveling.
Genetic tests are still being carried out on both bodies, reports CNN Brasil.
Phillips and Pereira went missing on June 5 while on a field trip in the Amazon.
Ten days later, a suspect led police to a location where he said he had buried their bodies.
Human remains unearthed at the site were taken to Brasília on Thursday for identification.
doubts about investigations
So far, two suspects have been arrested.
The investigators are causing confusion: According to the police, there is no evidence that other people could have been involved in the crime.
"The investigation results indicate that the killers acted alone, without clients, without a criminal organization behind the murders," the police said.
The Union of Indigenous Peoples of the Javari Valley (Unijava), which had participated in the search for the two men, immediately contradicted this.
Behind the crime were not just two killers, but a "powerful criminal group that had planned the crime down to the smallest detail," according to a Unijava statement.
The authorities have ignored numerous complaints about organized gangs in the region.
Phillips and Pereira were "murdered because they worked to protect the rainforest and the people who live there," said US State Department spokesman Ned Price.
“We demand accountability and justice.
We must work together to step up efforts to protect environmentalists and journalists.«
British journalist Phillips and Brazilian indigenous expert Pereira researched a book about violence against indigenous people and sustainable protection of the rainforest in the Javari Valley.
Gold miners, poachers and drug gangs are active in the region, which borders Peru and Colombia.
Brazil's right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro, who is held responsible for violence and environmental destruction in the Amazon, caused outrage with statements about the two men.
He accused Philipps of having undertaken "imprudent" journeys to areas where he was not welcome.
atb/Reuters/AFP