Two suspects confess to murder of missing British reporter and Amazon expert

The two brothers who are imprisoned as the main suspects in the disappearance of a British journalist and a Brazilian indigenista in a remote and jungle region of the

confessed to having murdered them, according to police sources quoted by the press on Wednesday.

According to

sources cited by different media outlets, the two arrested men confessed in separate interrogations that they murdered British journalist

, a contributor to The Guardian newspaper, and indigenist

eleven days ago .

The alleged confession of the crime emerged shortly after the two brothers were transferred by the Federal Police to the place where the disappearance apparently occurred, which occurred on June 5 in a region of the Amazon near the border between

and

. and

, to help search for the bodies.

The detainees are the fishermen brothers

, known as 'Pelado', and

, known as 'Dos Santos'.

The first was arrested last week and was considered the main suspect and the second was arrested on Tuesday.

According to sources cited by media such as the Bandeirantes and Globonews television networks, the brothers said they decided to commit the murder after Araújo surprised them in fishing practices considered illegal.

According to the account they gave, after detaining Araújo and his companion, who had traveled to the so-called

to collect material on a book that Phillips was writing about threats to the Indians of the region, they took them to an isolated place on a river where they were murdered, dismembered and burned and their remains buried.

In an interview granted on Wednesday by Brazilian President

, he stated that Phillips "was frowned upon in that region, because he did many reports against the 'garimpeiros' (illegal miners) and the environmental issue."

The far-right leader reiterated his opinion that both knew of the danger they could run by traveling to "

and that, therefore, they were not prudent.

Phillips and Araújo's trail was lost on June 5 when they were traveling from the community of

to the city of Atalaia do Norte.

Both were traveling in a new boat, with 70 liters of gasoline, enough for the trip, and were last seen near the community of

, a few kilometers from Sao Rafael.

Araújo, who has been working in that region for years and knows the area in depth, had been the object of various threats from mafias of illegal miners and fishermen, loggers and even drug traffickers who operate in the so-called Valle do Javari.

Phillips, for his part, is a veteran journalist based in Brazil for 15 years and has collaborated with various international media, such as the Financial Times, New York Times and the Washington Post, among others.

He is currently working on research for a book about Valle do Javari.

The disappearance of the journalist and the indigenist has generated a huge wave of concern among environmental movements and even in some international organizations, such as

, which has urged the Brazilian government to reinforce the searches.

This Wednesday, British Prime Minister

also expressed his "deep concern" , who even offered help to Brazil to solve the case.

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