Brazil court drops a suspect in Amazon slayings of a British journalist and an Indigenous advocate
A federal court in Brazil has dismissed charges against one of three men arrested in the killings of an Indigenous peoples expert and a British journalist in the Amazon, ruling there wasn’t sufficient evidence to try him
BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — A federal court in Brazil dismissed charges Tuesday against one of three men arrested for the killings of Indigenous peoples expert Bruno Pereira and British journalist Dom Phillips in the Amazon, ruling there wasn’t enough evidence to try him.
Oseney da Costa de Oliveira, a poor fisherman who lived by the Itaquai River, was arrested on June 14, 2022, nine days after the slayings.
Also arrested were his brother, Amarildo da Costa de Oliveira, and Jefferson da Silva Lima, who confessed to the killings but claimed self-defense. The Federal Regional Court of the 1st Region upheld a lower court decision that they will now face a jury trial.
With the ruling, Oseney Oliveira, a father of four, will be released following 27 months in prison, most in a federal penitentiary thousands of miles from Atalaia do Norte, his hometown in Brazil’s Amazon, where the killings occurred.
