Brazil police identify five more people linked to killings of Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira

Police investigating the murder of the British journalist Dom Phillips and indigenous advocate Bruno Pereira have identified five more people connected with the killings, bringing to eight the number of suspects in a crime that has shocked Brazil.

Police had already arrested two brothers, one of whom confessed to the crime, and a third man handed himself in to authorities on Saturday.

Phillips was a British journalist who was researching a book on sustainable development in the Amazon region and Pereira was helping him negotiate remote parts of the rainforest where he was carrying out interviews.

The pair were shot dead on 5 June and buried deep in the rainforest. Their bodies were discovered last week, when one of the two brothers confessed to the crime.

Police said Phillips had been killed with one gunshot to the body, while Pereira had been shot three times, twice in the chest and abdomen region and once in the head. The weapons used in the killing were of the type used by hunters, police said.

Officials claimed last week the suspects had acted alone, but that conclusion was questioned, not least by local Indigenous groups, who had previously reported the presence of drug gangs and organised crime mafias in the region.

The announcement added to the widespread lack of confidence local people put in state organs such as the police and, increasingly, Funai.

Xavier said that in the days after the pair went missing, they had not secured the necessary permits for entering Indigenous land, as required in Brazil. However, Indigenous groups said they did not need the permits because they had not ventured on to Indigenous territory. A judge agreed, and told Xavier to remove his statement from the Funai website and refrain from denigrating the two missing men. Funai complied.

Pereira, 41, had already clashed with Xavier, a former police chief appointed by Bolsonaro in July 2019. Pereira worked with Funai until late that year, when Xavier removed him from his post. Pereira said he believed the decision had been taken because he had led a successful operation against illegal mines on Indigenous land.

Colotetti said staff were being threatened with dismissal if they went ahead with the strike, but would not be intimidated.