The third suspect in the death of British journalist Dom Phillips and expert on indigenous peoples Bruno Araújo Pereira turned himself in to the police. He was denounced by Amarildo da Costa de Oliveira, the first suspect to be arrested, and told the police that Jefferson da Silva Lima was with him at the time of the crime.
It was this third suspect who shot several times at the boat where the British journalist and the activist were following. The Amazon justice system immediately issued an arrest warrant and Jefferson da Silva Lima surrendered this Saturday at the federal police station in Atalaia do Norte.
The man has already confessed that he participated in the crime, but denied having fired any shots. Now he is yet to be questioned, but he has already told authorities that more people from the community are involved.
According to federal police sources cited by Globo, the crime took place after Bruno Pereira photographed the boat where Jefferson and Amarildo were. An argument and persecution ensued.
The police believe that whoever was driving the boat was the first to be shot by the two men and, later, Dom Philips was also killed. Still to be clarified is the role of Oseney da Costa de Oliveira, Amarildo’s brother, in this crime.
The double homicide came days after US President Joe Biden held a meeting with his Brazilian counterpart, Jair Bolsonaro.
The disappearance of the two men revived criticism against the Brazilian head of state, accused of encouraging invasions of indigenous lands with his speeches in favor of exploiting the resources of the largest tropical forest in the world.
Brazilian authorities revealed on Friday that they believe those responsible for the probable death of the journalist and activist in the Amazon “acted alone”, at a time when they admit that there will be more arrests.
The authorities also confirmed this Saturday that the human remains, at the place where one of the main suspects confessed to murdering Dom Phillips and Brazilian activist Bruno Araújo Pereira, belong to the British journalist.
On Wednesday night, authorities found human remains at the site, in a remote part of the Amazon. The bodies arrived in Brasília on Thursday night on a Federal Police plane.
Phillips and Araújo disappeared on June 5th while sailing a river in Vale do Javari, a jungle region close to Brazil’s borders with Peru and Colombia, where they had traveled to collect material for a book the journalist was working on about threats faced by indigenous people in the region.
The two people arrested so far are two fishermen brothers from the region that Bruno Araújo had already denounced for practicing illegal fishing in prohibited areas, such as indigenous reserves.