Brazilian police have arrested another suspect over the murders of Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira, the justice and public security minister, Flávio Dino, has announced.
Phillips, a British journalist, and Pereira, a Brazilian Indigenous expert, were ambushed and shot dead in the western Amazon on 5 June 2022 while returning from a reporting trip near the remote Javari valley.
The latest suspect was considered the right-hand man of the alleged mastermind of the murders, the federal police said in a statement without giving names. In June 2023, police charged Ruben Dario da Silva Villar with ordering the murders.
Three fishers accused of killing Phillips and Pereira are awaiting trial by jury.
The preventive arrest of the man was reportedly ordered after police found indications that he was intimidating witnesses and attempting to interfere in the investigation.
Prosecutors understand Pereira was targeted for his activities helping Indigenous activists defend their land from illegal fishing and mining gangs, and believe Phillips was killed for being with him.
