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Christian Eede
6 June 2023, 17:50

Brazilian police charge two more men in connection to murder of former Mixmag editor Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira

They're believed to be part of an illegal fishing network, according to a police investigation

Brazilian police charge two more men with murders of former Mixmag editor Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira

Brazilian police have charged two more men in connection with the murders of British reporter and former Mixmag editor Dom Phillips and Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira.

Citing a federal police indictment, The Guardian reported that Ruben Dario da Silva Villar – who Brazilian police believe to be a leader of an illegal fishing network that operated between Brazil, Colombia and Peru – was charged with ordering the murders and concealing their bodies. His associate, Jânio Freitas de Souza, was also charged with participating in the crimes.

Phillips and Pereira went missing in the Amazon rainforest last June while on an expedition to report on Indigenous efforts to protect land from illegal fishers and miners. They were shot dead on 5th June while on their return journey. Their bodies were found and identified two weeks after they went missing.

Three fishermen were imprisoned in connection with the killings, but investigations into the full background of the matter have continued.

To mark the year anniversary of the killings, tribute events were held in Brazil's capital, Brasília, where Pereira once worked for the Indigenous agency, Funai, as well as on Rio's Copacabana beach, where Phillips often went paddle-boarding while living in the city.