Brazilian authorities say possible human remains have been found in a river in the Amazon rainforest where a British journalist and an indigenous expert went missing on Sunday.
Key points:
- Journalist Dom Phillips was last seen traveling in the Amazon rainforest with Bruno Araújo Pereira
- Experts will test the organic material found on the boat of the fisherman Amarildo da Costa
- Mr. Costa’s family alleges that he was tortured by Brazilian police to obtain a confession
The men disappeared as they were returning by boat from their intelligence voyage to the Javari Valley, which lies on the border of Peru and Colombia.
Possible remains were located in the Itaquai River in the upper Amazon basin.
Police say experts will also test “organic material” found on the boat of fisherman Amarildo da Costa and compare it to the DNA of journalist Dom Phillips and indigenous expert Bruno Araújo Pereira.
Da Costa, who has been charged with unlawful possession of restricted ammunition and was one of the last to see the two men, will be detained for 30 days while the investigation continues.
Lawyer Eliesio Morubo, who represents the Union of Indigenous Peoples of the Javari Valley, said Mr da Costa was in custody because the case could involve “heinous” crimes such as murder and hiding bodies.
Police believe the couple’s disappearance is linked to illegal fishing and poaching in indigenous territories.
Police boats search in murky waters along the Itaquai River. (Reuters: Bruno Kelly)
“He is innocent,” says the defendant’s brother
Mr. Costa’s lawyers and family say he is innocent.
He was said to be legally fishing in the river and allegedly tortured by police to obtain a confession.
Mr. da Costa’s brother, Osenei da Costa, told Reuters reporters in front of the police station where his brother, who had been beaten after being detained at his home in São Gabriel, was detained.
“They put him on a boat in the sun and started traveling to Atalaia do Norte,” he said.
“When they reached the Curupira stream, they put him in another boat.
“Then they beat him, tortured him, put his head under the water, trampled his leg and sprayed his face with pepper. They also drugged him twice, but I don’t know what they used to do.
“They wanted him to confess, but he’s innocent.”
Mr. Costa’s mother, Maria de Fatima da Costa, said she was in the port of Atalaia do Norte when her son arrived with police.
Mrs. Costa said he was taken out of the boat with a hood, unable to walk on his own and wet.
“I told the police that I was not a criminal to be treated like that,” he said.
He also said the blood police found on his son’s boat were probably from a pig he had slaughtered a few days before he was arrested.
In a statement, the state secretary of public security for the Amazon, which oversees local police, said it would not comment on the family’s allegations of torture by police.
Reuters has contacted Brazilian federal police for comment.
Soldiers deployed after a slow response
In Atalaia do Norte, the largest riverside town near where the journalist and indigenous expert were last seen, the streets have been occupied by soldiers in camouflaged trucks and distant sounds of helicopters.
Authorities were facing growing criticism over their slow response to the disappearance of men, with celebrities, politicians and civil society groups calling on the army and navy to step up their efforts.
On Friday, about 150 soldiers had been deployed on river boats to hunt down the missing men and interview the locals.
Brazilian soldiers descend on the riparian community of Atalaia do Norte. (Reuters: Bruno Kelly)
According to members of an indigenous watchdog group who accompanied Mr. Pereira and Mr. Phillips the day before his disappearance, Mr. de Costa and two other men aimed at them with weapons.
Paulo Maubo, president of the Javari Valley Indigenous Peoples Association, said Phillips had photographed the men while doing so.
But Mr.’s family de Costa disputed the allegations and said the oar was shaken at the couple, not a gun.
Mr.’s father-in-law de Costa, Francisco Conceição de Freitas, told AP that he probably felt threatened by the two men, that Mr. de Freitas said they were armed.
Phillips, 57, has been reporting from Brazil for more than a decade and has been writing a book on preserving the Amazon rainforest.
Pereira has long worked in the Javari Valley, working with Brazil’s indigenous affairs agency and also helping local groups defend themselves against illegal poachers and poachers.
Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to search, up and down arrows to gain volume. Clock time: 44 minutes 30 seconds44 m Four corners look at the front lines of the struggle to preserve the world’s largest rainforest.
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