The Guardian reports that the police have now arrested another man in connection with the murder of the British journalist Dom Phillips and his partner, Brazilian Bruno Pereira.
No evidence presented
Phillips and Pereira were reported missing June 5, when they were in an indigenous area in the Amazon where they worked on a documentary about indigenous communities.
Confirmed: Found dead
Phillips was a longtime contributor to the British newspaper The Guardian, where he mainly reported from Brazil. On Friday, June 17, police confirmed to the news agency Reuters that Phillips was found killed.
Officials in the Amazon city of Manaus, however, have gone out of their way to say that no evidence has yet been presented that the arrested person was involved in the killings.
The person in question quickly ended up in the police’s spotlight and has had the status of a suspect for some time.
False ID
On Thursday, he reported to the police and is said to have agreed to cooperate to clear his own name. During a conversation with the investigating officer, however, it was revealed that he had produced a fake Brazilian ID document.
– The police then discovered that he had other aliases in Peru and Colombia, said police officer Eduardo Fontes on Friday.
Confesses to the murder of a British journalist
One person confessed to the crime last month, and led police to the bodies, which were buried in a remote part of the rainforest, according to the country’s authorities.
Two other people have also been arrested in the case.
It is currently unclear what the motive for the killings has been, but it is believed that Pereira was the main target, writes The Guardian.
He was a defender of indigenous peoples and a former official of the Federal Government’s Indigenous Foundation. According to the newspaper, he must have known that there was illegal fishing in the area. It is also alleged that he received threats in the past.
According to the police, the person who has now been arrested works with fishing.
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