Greece’s
ambassador to Brazil was murdered in a plot hatched by his Brazilian wife and
her police officer lover, who confessed to the crime, officials said Friday.
The envoy, Kyriakos Amiridis, 59, was killed on Monday by the officer, Sergio
Gomez Moreira, Rio homicide division chief Evaristo Pontes told a news
conference.
Amiridis’s
charred body was found Thursday in Rio in his burned-out rental car, a day
after his wife, Francoise de Souza Oliveira, declared him missing. Oliveira,
40, and Moreira, 29, both admitted to having an affair, police said. The pair
are in custody, along with Moreira’s 24-year-old cousin, Eduardo Moreira de
Melo, who allegedly also took part. According to the homicide division chief,
Oliveira denied participating in the murder itself, but confessed she knew of
the crime. – Family vacation – Amiridis, who was named ambassador this year,
had been on a family vacation with his wife in the north of Rio de Janeiro
since December 21. They had been due to fly back to the capital Brasilia on
January 9. His wife had originally told police that he had left the Rio
apartment they were staying in, taken the car and not returned. But her version
had contradictions, and after Amiridis’s body was found in the burned-out car
under a bridge, police took Oliveira in for more questioning, and also detained
Moreira. Traces of blood were reportedly found on a sofa in the apartment
Amiridis and Oliveira had been using, leading investigators to believe he had
been killed there, then his body was placed in the rental car and driven to the
spot it was found. Pontes said that Oliveira had offered his cousin the
equivalent of $25,000 to help with murdering the ambassador. Moreira
acknowledged that he and Amiridis had had a physical fight, and that he had
strangled the ambassador in self-defense. – Young daughter – Amiridis had
previously served as Greece’s consul general in Rio from 2001 to 2004, where he
met Oliveira. The couple have a 10-year-old daughter. A Greek police team was
headed for Brazil to take part in the investigation, while Greece’s ambassador
in Argentina was traveling to Brasilia, Athens said. In a letter to the Greek
government, Brazilian President Michel Temer sent his condolences and conveyed
his government’s commitment to conducting a “rigorous” investigation. “The
Brazilian people do not accept this type of behavior and we apologize to the
entire Greek population,” said the director of Rio’s homicide division, Rivaldo
Barbosa. He called the murder “isolated” and a “crime of passion” that he said
has nothing to do with Rio’s elevated levels of violence. Rio de Janeiro,
though picturesque, has a reputation as a dangerous place. The 2016 Olympic
host city has seen crime rates soar in recent months, fueled by drug gang
violence. Hit hard by Brazil’s worst recession in more than a century, Rio de
Janeiro state is facing bankruptcy and struggling to deal with the violent
crime that has long dogged the area.
0 Comments