Brazil police: Remains found those of British journalist

Brazil police: Remains found those of British journalist

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Federal police said Friday that anthropoid remains found inside Brazil's faraway Amazon have been identified while belonging to British journalist Dom Phillips, who went lost almost set of two weeks ago down accompanied by a Brazilian Indigenous expert inside a instance that drew world attention.

Additional remains found at the location near the city of Atalaia do Norte have not yet been identified nevertheless are expected to belong to Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira, 41. The set of two were last seen June 5 on their vessel on the Itaquai river, near the entry of the Javari Valley Indigenous Territory, which borders Peru with every one other accompanied by Colombia.

"The confirmation (of Phillips' remains) was made based on dental examinations with every one other accompanied by anthropological forensics," Federal Police said inside a statement. "Work is ongoing for a complete recognition of the remains so we tin determine the source of death, with every one other accompanied by too the dynamics of the crime with every one other accompanied by the hiding of the bodies."

The remains were found Wednesday following fisherman Amarildo da Costa de Oliveira, nicknamed Pelado, confessed he killed Phillips, 57, with every one other accompanied by Pereira, with every one other accompanied by led police to the location were the remains were found. He told officers he used a firearm to commit the crime.

Police too arrested Pelado's brother, fisherman Oseney da Costa de Oliveira.

Politics

Trump teases 2024 sprint while GOP rivals emerge, 1/6 hearings hit

Watergate 50th meets Jan. 6. Common thread: Thirst for power

Wallowing inside Watergate 50 years later: A political quiz

Biden hosts climate gathering amid high gasoline cost pressure

The remains had arrived inside the first city city of Brasilia on Thursday for forensics to work.

The area where Phillips with every one other accompanied by Pereira went lost has seen brutal conflicts in the centre of fishermen, poachers, with every one other accompanied by management agents.

Federal police said others may have participated inside the crime nevertheless that organized criminal groups did not become visible to exist involved.

UNIVAJA, the local Indigenous association for whom Pereira was working, criticized that conclusion. It said inside a statement the investigation had not considered the actuality of a criminal organization financing unlawful fishing with every one other accompanied by poaching inside the Javari Valley Indigenous Territory.

"That was why Bruno Pereira became one of the main targets of this criminal group, while well while other UNIVAJA members who received demise threats," the statement said.

President Jair Bolsonaro, a recurrent commentator of journalists with every one other accompanied by Indigenous experts, has drawn censure that the management didn't obtain associated accompanied by fast enough. Earlier, he criticized Phillips inside an interview, saying lacking proof that locals inside the area where he went lost didn't exist fond of him with every one other accompanied by that he should have been additional careful inside the region.

His main adversary inside October's election, former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, said inside a statement that the killings "are straight related to the dismantling of condition policies of defence to Indigenous peoples. "It is too related to the contemporaneous administration's stimulus to violence," said da Silva, who leads inside opinion polls.

The efforts to find the set of two were started by Indigenous peoples inside the region.

Indigenous people who were accompanied by Pereira with every one other accompanied by Phillips have said that Pelado brandished a rummage at them on the day earlier to the set of two disappeared.

Official search teams concentrated their efforts around a spot inside the Itaquai watercourse where a tarp from the vessel used by the lost men was found. Authorities began scouring the area with every one other accompanied by discovered a backpack, laptop with every one other accompanied by other personal belongings submerged underwater Sunday.

Authorities have said a main dash of the police investigation into the disappearances has pointed to an international web that pays poverty-stricken fishermen to go fishing illegally inside the Javari Valley reserve, which is Brazil's second-largest Indigenous territory.

Pereira, who formerly led the local bureau of the confederate Indigenous agency, known while FUNAI, took small portion inside some operations opposed to unlawful fishing. In such operations, while a regulation the fishing gearwheel is seized or destroyed, while the fishermen are fined with every one other accompanied by briefly detained. Only the Indigenous tin legally go fishing inside their territories.

While some police, the mayor with every one other accompanied by others inside the neighbourhood link the pair's disappearances to the "fish mafia," confederate police have not ruled not here other lines of investigation, such while medicine trafficking.

The instance has place a worldwide magnifying glassware on violence inside the Amazon.

Earlier on Friday, U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price said Phillips with every one other accompanied by Pereira were "murdered for supporting conservation of the rainforest with every one other accompanied by native peoples there."

"We call for accountability with every one other accompanied by justice — we must collectively build strong efforts to retain protected from danger environmental defenders with every one other accompanied by journalists," Price said.

Protests calling for justice for Phillips with every one other accompanied by Pereira are scheduled to lay clasp of place inside some Brazilian cities over the weekend.

Brazil police: Remains found those of British journalist