Without presenting any evidence or new facts, the senator used his space on the Constitution and Justice Committee to present an unreal version of the motivation behind the murders para apresentar versão fantasiosa sobre a motivação dos crimes
Senator Omar Aziz, from the Social Democratic Party (PSD) of Amazonas states, used his mandate as a parliamentarian and his space as a member of the Senate's Constitution and Justice Committee to present, without any evidence or new facts, a fabricated version of the motives behind the murders of indigenous expert Bruno Pereira, founder of Opi, and British journalist Dom Phillips.
He said in public that the brutal crimes were caused by personal disagreements between Bruno and the murderers, a version that contradicts the investigations of the Federal Police and the charges brought by the Federal Prosecution Office against the confessed killers of Bruno and Dom. The speech was made during a session on October 30 to discuss a bill authorising employees of the National Foundation for Indigenous Peoples (FUNAI) to carry guns.
The families of Bruno Pereira and Dom Phillips issued a statement rejecting the senator's speech, which they considered “frivolous”. The Observatory for the Human Rights of Isolated and Recently Contacted Indigenous Peoples (Opi) stands in solidarity with the families and also repudiates the use of the parliamentary mandate to produce a false interpretation of the context of the crimes that shocked Brazil and the world in June 2022.
Read the families' note in full:
“The families of Bruno da Cunha Araújo Pereira and Dominic Phillips publicly repudiate the speech made by Senator Omar Aziz at a session of the Constitution and Justice Committee of the Federal Senate on October 30.
In a frivolous pronouncement, the Senator attributed the brutal and tragic double murder to a personal disagreement initiated by the victim of the crimes, a version that does not find the slightest support either in the investigations conducted by the Federal Police or in the evidence produced by the courts.
Senator Aziz's speech re-victimises Bruno Pereira and Dom Phillips, who were killed in the noble exercise of their professions, and their families, discredits the hard work done by the Brazilian state to elucidate the facts and ascertain the responsibilities of the perpetrators, and minimises the vulnerability experienced by public agents and press professionals in the region.”
The bill that was under discussion when Senator Omar Aziz made his statement is Bill 10.326/2022, authored by Senator Fabiano Contarato (PT-ES), which provides for Funai agents to carry firearms during their activities. Among the bill's justifications is the insecurity to which Funai employees, indigenous experts and indigenous people are subjected when carrying out their institutional missions in conflictive areas.
“This bill came about as a result of the deaths of indigenist Bruno and Dom Phillips, who were killed with the utmost cruelty, their bodies concealed. We cannot accept that, regrettably, the land grabbers are armed and government agents are there, 'paying with their lives', as the two men did, in the middle of the Amazon rainforest,”said the author.
As well as being the founder of Opi, Bruno Pereira was a career employee of FUNAI and had been removed from the General Coordination of Isolated and Recently Contacted Indigenous People (CGIIRC) during the presidency of Marcelo Xavier, a police officer, who was also indicted for the crimes. Bruno was on leave from FUNAI and working as an advisor for the Union of Indigenous Peoples of the Javari Valley (UNIVAJA) when he was murdered in June 2022 alongside British journalist Dom Phillips, who was accompanying him to write a book on the Amazon.
