Businessman ‘ordered killings’ of British journalist and companion in Amazon

Brazilian police have announced they are planning to indict a Colombian fish trader as the mastermind of last year’s slayings of Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira and British journalist Dom Phillips.

Ruben Dario da Silva Villar provided the ammunition to kill the pair, made phone calls to the confessed killer before and after the crime, and paid his lawyer, federal police officials said during a press conference held in Manaus on Monday.

Fisherman Amarildo da Costa de Oliveira, nicknamed Pelado, confessed that he shot Mr Phillips and Mr Pereira, and has been under arrest since soon after the killings in early June.

People take part in a vigil outside the Brazilian Embassy in London for Dom Phillips and Bruno Araujo Pereira
People take part in a vigil outside the Brazilian Embassy in London for Dom Phillips and Bruno Araujo Pereira (Victoria Jones/PA)

They all live in an impoverished riverine community inside a federal agrarian reform settlement between the city of Atalaia do Norte and Javari Valley Indigenous Territory.

Mr Villar has denied any wrongdoing in the case.

Before Monday’s announcement, he was already being held on charges of using false Brazilian and Peruvian documents and leading an illegal fishing scheme.

Family of Dom Phillips, (l-r) Sian Phillips, Gareth Phillips, Paul Sherwood, Helen Davies, Rhianna Davies and Domonique Davies, outside the Brazilian Embassy in London
Family of Dom Phillips: Sian Phillips, Gareth Phillips, Paul Sherwood, Helen Davies, Rhianna Davies and Domonique Davies outside the Brazilian Embassy in London (Victoria Jones/PA)

In a statement, UNIVAJA, the local Indigenous association that employed Mr Pereira, said it believed there were other significant plotters behind the killings who have not been arrested.

Mr Pereira and Mr Phillips were travelling in the remote area of the Amazon when they disappeared and their bodies were recovered after the confessions.

Mr Phillips was researching a book about how to save the world’s largest rainforest.

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