Brazilian prosecutors charge man accused of ordering high-profile killing in Amazon region
Ruben Dario Villar, a Colombian fish trader, was formally accused by Brazilian police last November of being the person who planned the slaying.
Phillips and Pereira went missing exactly three years ago, on June 5, 2022. Phillips was shot and killed while researching an ambitious book on how to protect the world's largest rainforest, which was finished and recently published in Brazil by his family and friends.
'How to Save the Amazon' is scheduled to be published in the U.S. on June 10. The book was pieced together by fellow journalists who immersed themselves in Phillips' notes, outlines and the handful of chapters he'd already written.
In a statement Thursday, federal prosecutors said 'Bruno and Dom were assaulted and murdered for a vile -- despicable, perverse -- reason, in a cruel manner, without any chance of defense.'
According to the police investigation, Villar financed an illegal fishing operation inside the Javari Valley Indigenous Territories, where thousands of Indigenous people live, including the world's largest concentration of uncontacted groups. The murders were motivated by Pereira's efforts to monitor and enforce environmental laws in the region, police said.
He has been in jail since 2022 and has denied any wrongdoing. The Associated Press was unable to reach his legal representatives for comment.
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