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Missing journalist covered violence against tribal peoples: body found, suspect confesses

2022-06-16T11:39:30.395Z


Missing journalist covered violence against tribal peoples: body found, suspect confesses Created: 06/16/2022Updated: 06/16/2022 13:21 By: Michelle Brey A journalist and an indigenous expert have gone missing in Brazil. Human remains have now been found. A suspect confessed. Brasilia/Munich - They were last seen on June 5, since then there has been no trace of them: British journalist Dom Phil


Missing journalist covered violence against tribal peoples: body found, suspect confesses

Created: 06/16/2022Updated: 06/16/2022 13:21

By: Michelle Brey

A journalist and an indigenous expert have gone missing in Brazil.

Human remains have now been found.

A suspect confessed.

Brasilia/Munich - They were last seen on June 5, since then there has been no trace of them: British journalist Dom Phillips, who worked freelance for the Guardian, and indigenous expert Bruno Pereira were missing.

Human remains have now been found during a search for the two men in the Amazon region of Brazil, a suspect has confessed.

A colleague of the journalist speaks of a "horror story".

Brazil: journalist and indigenous expert missing - suspect leads police to corpses

A 41-year-old fisherman was arrested on June 7th.

According to the Brazilian police, the suspect "told in detail about the crime committed and named the place where he buried the bodies".

He led the investigators to a "very difficult to access place" in the rainforest.

Eduardo Alexandre Fontes, head of the federal police in the state of Amazonas, said on Wednesday (local time).

"Excavations have taken place at the site and are continuing, but human remains have already been found," he added.

Now "certainty" must be achieved through scientific investigations as to whether it is really the corpses of Phillips and Pereira.

The police officer initially did not want to comment on the exact circumstances of the death of the two missing persons.

"There was a confrontation," Fontes said, referring to the suspect's testimony.

This says "in principle" that the missing "were killed by a gun".

The police left open whether the fisherman committed the crime himself.

The suspect admitted to being present at the incident.

Phillip's wife Alessandra Sampaio said it was a "tragic result" that "puts an end to the agony of not knowing Dom and Bruno's whereabouts".

She added, "Today begins our journey to seek justice." She hopes that further investigation into the suspect's motive and exact role in the deaths of the two men could "provide definitive answers."

Brazil: journalist and indigenous expert dead, police arrested two men - that's well known

  • Since June

    5,

    the journalist Phillips and the Pereira, an expert on indigenous peoples, have been missing.

    They had researched together in the Javari Valley for a book on violence against indigenous people and sustainable protection.

    She was last seen in a boat on the Itaquai River.

  • June 7

    Police arrested the now-confessed fisherman who witnesses said was stalking Phillips and Pereira's boat.

    Traces of blood were later discovered in the suspect's boat.

    Investigators also found personal items such as clothing belonging to the missing person near the house.

  • June 14:

    Police arrested another man.

    Although, according to the police, he denied being involved in the crime, "we have evidence against him," it said.

    There should also be evidence of a third party involved.

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Criticism of Bolsonaro after the disappearance of the men - "shady adventure"

Far-right Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who advocates mining and farming exploitation of indigenous reserves in the Amazon, has been heavily criticized for his comments on the disappearance of the two men.

He had described the two men's expedition as a "shady adventure".

He also said in an interview on Wednesday that Phillips was "badly viewed" in the Amazon because he wrote "a lot of reports against gold diggers, about the environment".

“In this very remote region, a lot of people didn't like him.

He should have been doubly careful," Bolsonaro said.

"There are pirates on the river, it's reckless to go around there unarmed."

"Horror story" in Brazil: journalist apparently dead - colleague takes a stand

Phillips' Guardian colleague Jonathan Watts, on the other hand, praised the 57-year-old's commitment to the environment.

"It's a horror story that grabs everyone who is a journalist who cares about the Amazon and the indigenous peoples and the life system of our planet," the environmental journalist, who works partly in Brazil, told the AFP news agency.

"But I hope it will encourage rather than discourage editors and journalists from pursuing the stories that mattered to Dom."


In Germany too, a body found in the forest in April caused a stir.

(mbr with AFP)

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-06-16

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