‘Colombia’ ordered the murders of Bruno and Dom Phillips, says PF

The Federal Police (PF) concluded that Rubens Villar Coelho, known as Colombia, ordered the deaths of indigenist Bruno Pereira and British journalist Dom Phillips, murdered in Vale do Javari (AM), in early June last year. In October, Colombia had been released on bail after paying bail of R$15,000. In December, however, he was again arrested by the PF for having violated the conditions imposed for his provisional release. The information was passed on today (23) by the Federal Police superintendent in the state, Alexandre Fontes. According to the PF, throughout the investigation, several indications of Colombia’s participation as the mastermind of the crime were identified. Fontes said that the set of evidence, made up of several expert reports, allowed the police to name Colombia as the mastermind. “We have evidence that he [Colômbia] supplied ammunition for Jefferson and Amarildo, the same ones found in the case. He paid for Amarildo’s initial defense lawyer,” said the superintendent. Fontes also said that a report was forwarded to Justice with six more indictments for the crimes of double qualified homicide and concealment of the corpses. Before, the Federal Public Ministry (MPF) denounced Amarildo da Costa Oliveira, known as Pelado; Oseney da Costa de Oliveira and Jefferson da Silva Lima for double homicide for futile motive and concealment of bodies. “We previously had three names. We identified Amarildo’s brother, he provided the firearm to the Amarildo. He will respond as a participant in the murder,” said Fontes. Understand Records point to previous disagreements between the former employee of the National Indian Foundation (Funai) Bruno Pereira and Pelado, who is suspected of involvement with illegal fishing in the region. According to investigations, Bruno and Dom were ambushed and killed after Bruno asked Dom to photograph the accused’s boat, in order to attest to the practice of illegal fishing. Bruno was killed with three shots – one of them in the back. Dom was murdered just because he was with Bruno at the time of the crime. Last Friday (20), the instruction and trial hearings of the three accused of the murders were suspended by the judge of the Federal Court of Tabatinga, Fabiano Verli. The testimonies were scheduled to take place from this Monday and end on Wednesday (25). In the decision, Verli pointed out the lack of available rooms to receive the defendants for their depositions and said that there was “a regrettable lack of communication between us, from the Public Justice”.

Agência Brasil