Status: 06/11/2022 3:13 p.m
Brazilian authorities may have found human remains while searching for missing journalist Philips and his companion. Relatives of a suspect raise serious allegations against the investigators.
Concerns about British journalist Dom Phillips, who disappeared in Brazil, and his Brazilian companion, Bruno Pereira, are growing: during the search for the two investigators investigated in the Amazon rainforest on Friday, possible human remains and a place where something was apparently buried. This was reported by the fire department and police. On Thursday, investigators had already found traces of blood in the boat of an arrested suspect.
Firefighter Geonivan Maciel told reporters on Friday that investigators are investigating a suspicious site of “dug up earth” in the village of Cachoeira, on the banks of the Itaquai River, where the men were last seen. “It looks like someone was digging or burying something at the site,” Maciel said. So far there is no clear evidence, “but we will see if there is anything that we can use to find out something about the two missing men”.
DNA are matched
The Brazilian federal police later announced that the investigators had found “apparently human organic material” during the search. It was initially unclear whether it was found in the place described by Maciel. According to the police, investigators took samples from Phillips and Pereira’s apartments for a DNA comparison.
The Brazilian authorities are under immense pressure to locate Phillips and his companion. Numerous celebrities demand that the search be accelerated. There are now allegations that the investigators have exceeded limits.
Family raises allegations of torture
Relatives of the arrested suspect accused the police of torture. Police officers beat Amarildo da Costa de Oliveira, sprayed him with pepper spray, pushed his head under water and kicked him on his legs, his brother Osnei told the AP news agency. They would have drugged him too. “They wanted him to confess, but he’s innocent,” said Osenei da Costa de Oliveira, who visited his brother in prison.
The local security authorities did not want to comment because the case was being investigated by the federal police. The federal police did not respond to inquiries about the allegations.
Dom Phillips reports on indigenous rights in English-language media from the Amazon rainforest.
Image: AFP
Missing people are said to have been threatened
The men were last seen on Sunday last week in the inaccessible Vale do Javari, Brazil’s second largest indigenous territory. Companions of the two said that a day before they disappeared, they were threatened at gunpoint by a group of fishermen. One of the fishermen is said to have been Amarildo da Costa de Oliveira.
His family said the man threatened not with a gun but with an oar because he felt threatened by armed Indians who were accompanying Phillips and Pereira. She denied allegations that Costa de Oliveira fished there illegally.
Federal police said they found blood in da Costa de Oliveira’s boat, which is now being analyzed. The suspect’s family said the blood likely came from a pig he slaughtered a few days before his arrest. Da Costa de Oliveira was the only person arrested in the case so far.
Pereira has been threatened for years
The 57-year-old Phillips has been reporting from Brazil for more than ten years, including working as a freelance journalist for the newspapers “Guardian” and “Washington Post”. Most recently, he was working on a book on Amazon conservation.
Pereira has long been in the service of Brazil’s Indigenous Affairs Authority in the Vale do Javari. He oversaw their regional office and was responsible for managing isolated indigenous groups. Pereira then took time off to help local tribals defend themselves against illegal fishermen and poachers. For years, the official and expert has been threatened because of his work.