Third suspect arrested in the murder of a British journalist in the Amazon

The third suspect in the murders of British journalist Dom Phillips and Brazilian indigenista Bruno Araújo Pereira, whose bodies were found on Wednesday after eleven days of searches in a remote part of the Amazonwas arrested this Saturday, official sources reported.

(You may be interested in: Brazil: they confess to the murder of the two disappeared in the Amazon)

This is Jeferson da Silva Lima, known as “Pelado da Dinha” and who is suspected of having been an accomplice of the brothers Amarildo and Oseney da Costa Oliveira, the first of them a confessed prisoner, in the crime that shocked Brazil and has generated protests around the world.

Da Silva Lima, whose arrest was ordered on Friday by a judge in the state of Amazonas and was declared a fugitive after the police unsuccessfully searched for him in the municipality of Benjamín Contant, appeared voluntarily early this Saturday at the police station in neighboring Atalaia do Norte.

The suspect, who was immediately arrested and subjected to questioning, alleged that he was unaware of the arrest warrant and that he decided to go to the police station after his relatives told him that the police were looking for him, but he pleaded not guilty.

“According to all the evidence and all the testimonies we have heard so far, he (Da Silva Lima) was at the scene of the crime and actively participated in the double homicide,” said Commissioner Alex Perez Timoteo, of the Atalaia Civil Police. C North.

The Civil Police of Atalaia do Norte and the Federal Police, which are collaborating in the case, are investigating up to five suspects for the disappearance of the contributor to the English newspaper The Guardian and the specialist in indigenous affairs, the murder of both and the concealment of their bodies.

(You can read: Brazil: they find ‘human remains’ of a disappeared journalist in the Amazon)

On Friday, the Federal Police confirmed that some of the mortal remains found two days earlier correspond to the British journalist.

The identification of the remains of the collaborator of the English newspaper The Guardian was possible thanks to “an examination of legal dentistry combined with forensic anthropology” carried out by experts from the Federal Police, who are still working to try to establish whether other remains found correspond to the indigenista .

The difficulty in identification is due to the fact that, as one of the perpetrators of the crime confessed, the two victims were shot to death and dismembered before their remains were cremated and hidden in an inaccessible location in the middle of the jungle.

Phillips and Araújo had been missing since June 5 and had been seen for the last time when they were sailing down a river in the Valle do Jaravi region, in a remote area of ​​the Brazilian Amazon bordering Colombia and Peru.

The two brothers arrested for the crime are fishermen and had already been reprimanded by Araújo for fishing in areas under the jurisdiction of indigenous reserves, which is prohibited.

The prisoner who confessed to the crime led the authorities to the place where he buried the bodies of his victims, located about 3 kilometers into the jungle in the river where he intercepted and killed them.

In a statement released on Friday, the Federal Police stated that the investigations “indicate that the executors acted alone,” which ruled out the alleged participation of criminal organizations in the crime or that the murderers acted under the command of a third party.

The hypothesis was refuted by the Union of Indigenous Peoples of Valle do Javari (Univaja) which, in a statement, alleged that “the degree of cruelty used in the practice of the crime shows that Pereira and Phillips crossed the path of a powerful criminal organization who tried at all costs to hide his tracks”.

(Also: The questions of the search for the disappeared in the Amazon)

Pereira had received threats on several occasions for his complaints against organizations engaged in drug trafficking, logging, illegal fishing and hunting in the indigenous reserves of the Valle do Javari.

The death of Phillips, 57, and Araújo, 41, has generated a worldwide shock and exposed the threats surrounding the jungle and the indigenous people of the Amazon.

Phillips was a veteran journalist based in Brazil for 15 years, where he collaborated with various international media, such as the Financial Times, The New York Times and The Washington Post, among others, and is working on an investigation for a book about the threats that indigenous communities in the Amazon suffer.

EFE

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