MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazil: Bruno and Dom case defendant granted house arrest

Oseney da Costa de Oliveira will have to wear a tracking anklet while staying with a relative in Manaus

Fisherman Oseney da Costa de Oliveira, one of the three people detained in connection with the 2022 murder of British journalist Dom Phillips and indigenist activist Bruno Pereira, was granted house arrest Friday by case rapporteur Justice Marcos Augusto de Sousa of Brasilia's Federal First Region Regional Court (TRF1), Agencia Brasil reported.

The measure had been requested by the legal team assisting the suspect citing health problems such as the need for a colonoscopy to treat heavy bleeding in the rectal area. Da Costa de Oliveira, whose son Amarildo has been prosecuted for the double homicide in the Vale do Javari Indigenous Land in Amazonas, will have to wear a tracking anklet while staying with a relative in Manaus, it was explained.

Last Tuesday, the TRF1 concurred with De Sousa's rationale and rejected the prosecution's accusation against him on the grounds that there was no evidence placing him at the crime scene; he was merely with his son Amarildo in a canoe. Meanwhile, Amarildo and Jefferson da Silva Lima will remain in prison to stand trial in Tabatinga.

Bruno and Dom were killed on June 5, 2022, while traveling by boat through the Vale do Javari, in the Amazon, a region that shelters the Vale do Javari Indigenous Land, the second largest in the country, with more than 8.5 million hectares.

They were last seen while leaving the community of São Rafael for the city of Atalaia do Norte (AM), where they were to meet with local community leaders. Their bodies were recovered ten days later, buried in an area of closed bush, about 3 kilometers from the Itacoaí River creek.

A contributor to the British newspaper The Guardian, Phillips was dedicated to environmental journalistic coverage and was working on a book on the Amazon.

Pereira had held a position at the National Foundation of Indigenous Peoples (Funai) before leaving the organization to work for the Union of Indigenous Peoples of the Javari Valley (Univaja). For his work in defense of indigenous communities and environmental preservation, he received several death threats.