Berliner Tageblatt - Brazil must act on probe into UK journalist's murder: media watchdog

The demand came in the wake of Brazilian federal police on Monday wrapping up a two-year probe into the killings which took place in the Amazon rainforest.

That investigation concluded that Phillips, who freelanced for outlets including The Guardian and The Washington Post, and Pereira were shot dead because of Pereira's monitoring of poaching and other illegal activities going on in the vast Amazon.

It said an alleged mastermind behind the killings was charged for having "supplied the rounds for the perpetration of the crime, provided financial support to the criminal organization's activities and who was involved in coordinating the concealments of the bodies."

While the police report did not name the alleged mastermind, Brazilian media reports identified him as Ruben Dario da Silva Villar, a Colombian national who has been in custody since December 2022 and who is being investigated for illegal fishing and drug trafficking.

Phillips, 57, and Pereira, 41, disappeared on June 5, 2022 while traveling through a remote Indigenous reserve in the Amazon, close to the borders of Colombia and Peru.

Their hacked-up bodies were found and identified days later, after an alleged accomplice confessed to burying them. Autopsies showed they had been shot with shells used for hunting.

According to police, other accomplices took part in the murders and hiding the bodies. Three fishermen were arrested and arraigned for trial.

The killings became a symbol in Brazil and abroad for the corruption and lawlessness fueling the destruction of the Amazon, the world's biggest rainforest, and the dangers faced by journalists and Indigenous experts in the country.

Reporters Without Borders (known by its French initials RSF) said it welcomed the conclusion of the Brazilian police report but stressed all the perpetrators must be put on trial.

"Justice for Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira will only be achieved when all guilty parties are held accountable," said RSF Latin America director Artur Romeu.

"Dom's murder cannot be dismissed as collateral damage to Bruno's death. Both were deliberately targeted by a criminal network operating with impunity in the Amazon."

O.Lorenz--BTB