By Canadian Press

Brazil official: Police find human remains in Amazon search

Jun 15, 2022 | 5:00 PM

ATALAIA DO NORTE, Brazil (AP) — Brazil’s justice minister said Wednesday that police reported finding human remains in the Amazon area where an Indigenous expert and British journalist disappeared more than a week ago.

Justice Minister Anderson Torres said the remains had not been identified.

Writing on Twitter, he said: “I have just been informed by the federal police that ‘human remains have been found at the place where there digging was being made.’ Those will be submitted to forensics.”

No further details were immediately available, but federal police scheduled a news conference.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

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ATALAIA DO NORTE, Brazil (AP) — Brazilian police on Wednesday took a suspect out on the river toward search parties looking for remains of British journalist Dom Phillips and Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira. Both disappeared on June 5.

An Associated Press photographer in Atalaia do Norte witnessed police taking the suspect, who was in a hood, on a boat.

Federal police did not immediately answer queries from AP seeking details.

On Tuesday, police said they had arrested a second suspect in connection with the disappearance of Phillips and Pereira, who were traveling in a remote area of the Amazon.

Police arrested Oseney da Costa de Oliveira, 41, a fisherman and a brother of the man so far considered by police as the main suspect in the case, Amarildo da Costa de Oliveira, also 41, nicknamed Pelado.

De Oliveira told the AP on Friday that he had visited Pelado in jail and was told that local police had tortured him in attempts to get a confession. De Oliveira said his brother was innocent.

Both men were being held at the jail in Atalaia do Norte. Because of the hood, it wasn’t clear who was being led by police.

____ Maisonnave reported from Leticia, Colombia.

Fabianno Maisonnave And Edmar Barros, The Associated Press