Five suspects questioned over murders of Brit journalist and his guide in Amazon

Brazilian police are investigating five suspects over the murders of British journalist Dom Phillips and indigenous expert Bruno Pereira.

This week human remains were found in search of the pair, who went missing in a remote part of the Amazon rainforest.

It is thought they were last seen alive early on June 5 in Sao Rafael district. Police said a suspect confessed to shooting the men, and led them to the bodies.

Investigators had arrested brothers Oseney and Amarildo da Costa de Oliveira, who on Wednesday admitted to murdering the pair with a firearm and covering up their remains.

But detectives are believed to be interrogating three other people, at least one of whom is suspected of having a hand in the killings.

The other two are suspected of helping conceal the bodies and ordering the hit, according to federal police officers speaking on condition of anonymity.

Police were led by prime suspect Amarildo deep into a remote part of the Amazon near the Peru border and shown the human remains.

Authorities say the fisherman had threatened Pereira for documenting illegal fishing in the remote Javari Valley.

While formal identification still needs to take place, investigators have little doubt that the bodies belong to 57-year-old Mr Phillips and Bruno Pereira, 41.

Mr Phillips, a freelance reporter who had written for the Guardian and the Washington Post, was doing research for a book on the trip with Mr Pereira, a former head of isolated and recently contacted tribes at federal indigenous affairs agency Funai.

They were in a remote jungle area near the border with Colombia and Peru called the Javari Valley, which is home to the world’s largest number of uncontacted indigenous people.

The region has been invaded by illegal fishermen, hunters, loggers, and miners, and police call it a key route for drug trafficking.

Indigenous groups, environmentalists, fellow reporters and family and friends paid tribute to father-of-three Mr Philips and Mr Pereira, who also leaves behind three children.

Through his reporting, veteran journalist Mr Phillips became an international voice for the threats facing the world’s largest rainforest.

Mr Pereira, a 41-year-old indigenous peoples advocate and former official of the government agency Funai, was travelling with Mr Phillips as he researched for his book.

‘Now we can bring them home and say goodbye with love,’ Mr Phillips’ wife, Alessandra Sampaio, said.

The Javari Valley indigenous association Univaja, which searched tirelessly for the men, said their murder was a ‘political crime’ and called on the government to better protect their land.

Indigenous territories have become increasingly vulnerable to invasions, affected by cuts to agency funding and staff under far-right President Jair Bolsonaro.

Survival International said Mr Phillips and Mr Pereira were the latest victims of a war being waged by Bolsonaro and his allies in Brazil’s farm sector eyeing protected indigenous lands.

‘The government’s genocidal attempts to open up indigenous territories to invaders, and reward criminals with impunity, have caused sky-rocketing levels of both forest destruction and appalling violence against those who try to stop it,’ said the organisation’s advocacy director Fiona Watson.

Bolsonaro tweeted condolences to the men’s families, without mentioning their names.

He attached a statement from Funai that praised Mr Pereira as one of Brazil’s top experts in the protection of isolated and recently contacted indigenous tribes.

Bolsonaro previously said the two had been on ‘an adventure that was not recommended’ and that due to his stories ‘this Englishman was disliked’ in the area.

Mr Phillips, born in Bebington, near Liverpool, was an admired reporter in Brazil and a regular contributor to The Guardian.

He also wrote for The Washington Post, The New York Times and other publications during his 30-year career in journalism.

Mr Phillips is survived by his wife Sampaio and younger siblings Sian and Gareth Phillips.

His early journalism focused on dance music, covering the rise of rave culture in 1990s Britain at the cult music magazine Mixmag, of which he became editor in 1993.

Mr Phillips coined the term ‘progressive house’ in a seminal piece for the magazine in 1992.

In 2007, he moved to Brazil to write a book about the commercialization of dance music and start a new career as a foreign correspondent.

He covered an array of topics from oil auctions to World Cup protests but increasingly turned his focus to the Amazon and the threats facing the rainforest.

At a news conference in Brasilia in 2019, weeks before fires consumed swaths of rainforest, Mr Phillips asked Bolsonaro about his commitment to protecting the region in a clip that has gone viral in recent days.

‘You have to understand that the Amazon is Brazil’s, not yours,’ the president shot back.

In a letter last week, journalists and friends described Mr Phillips as ‘one of the sharpest and most caring foreign journalists in South America’.

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