Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira: Murder charges against one of three suspects dropped | Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira

Professional judges in Brazil yesterday upheld charges against only two of the three men accused of murdering Bruno Pereira and Dom Phillips, in a decision “received with outrage” by indigenous activists.

The three judges ruled that there was “insufficient evidence of authorship or participation” by Oseney da Costa de Oliveira, a fisherman, in the 2022 death of the Brazilian indigenous expert and British Guardian journalist.

However, charges against the other two suspects – fellow fisherman Amarildo da Costa de Oliveira (Oseney’s brother) and Jefferson da Silva Lima (also known as Pelado da Dinha) – were upheld and they will appear before a jury.

The decision does not mean Oseney is acquitted, as prosecutors can still appeal the verdict or bring new charges against him. But he could be moved from maximum security to house arrest if his lawyer files a request, which he said yesterday he would do, and if a judge grants the request.

In a statement, Univaja, the indigenous association where Pereira worked, said it “received the decision with outrage” and found it “concerning” because it “could lead to… the release of Oseney”.

“According to the evidence that the police collected during the investigation at the time, the suspect was directly involved at the scene of the tragic murder of our friends Bruno and Dom,” the Public Prosecution Service said.

Univaja also said it was “confident” that prosecutors would appeal and said it expected the judiciary to “deal with this case based on the evidence collected” and conduct the trial “in a correct and impeccable manner.”

Pereira and Phillips were ambushed and killed near the Amazon town of Atalaia do Norte while returning from a reporting trip to the entrance to one of Brazil’s largest indigenous territories.

Months after the crime, prosecutors charged Oseney with first-degree double murder—Amarildo and Silva Lima, who, unlike Oseney, confessed to the crime, were also charged with concealing a corpse. Last May, a trial judge accepted murder charges against all three, but Oseney’s attorney appealed, leading to yesterday’s decision.

Prosecutors said a witness saw Oseney at the lake where Bruno and Dom were killed, holding a hunting rifle near the boat carrying Amarildo and Silva Lima.

In yesterday’s ruling, Judge Marcos Augusto de Souza said that “the fact that (Oseney) was carrying a hunting rifle – if it was in an urban area it would have different implications, but in a region close to the border where hunting for subsistence takes place … it is common.”

Regarding his presence near the execution site, the judge said that “the testimonies of the two known suspects explicitly exclude Oseney from the crime scene, that is, from the location and time when the crime was committed”, adding that “the indictment does not indeed describe any action by Oseney”.

As for the involvement of the other two, the judge said there was sufficient evidence to bring them before a public jury on charges of double murder and concealing a corpse.

No date has been set for the jury trial of Amarildo and Silva Lima, and prosecutors have not yet announced whether they will appeal the Oseney verdict.

Oseney’s lawyer, Lucas Sá Souza, said during the trial that he would request house arrest because his client was ill, suffering from internal bleeding and was unable to undergo the necessary tests to diagnose his condition while in prison.

Pereira and Phillips were killed while traveling along the Itaquaí River on June 5, 2022. They were visiting indigenous peoples’ patrol teams tasked with protecting the indigenous territory of the Javari Valley. This vast rainforest is believed to be home to the largest concentration of uncontacted indigenous peoples in the world.

The fishermen are suspected of committing the crime on behalf of Ruben Dario da Silva Villar, who is accused by police of running a transnational illegal fishing network that exploits these protected indigenous areas. Villar has also been arrested and charged.