Tag Archives: brazil

Dom Phillips: Officials link disappearance of British journalist in Brazil to ‘fish mafia

Dom Phillips went missing with indigenous official Bruno Pereira on 5 June in western Brazil. Police have since found blood on a suspect’s boat and “apparently human” material in the Amazonian rainforest.

The disappearance of a British journalist in Brazil has been linked to an international network that pays poor fishermen to illegally fish in the country’s second-largest indigenous territory, authorities said.

Journalist Dom Phillips and indigenous official Bruno Pereira were last seen on 5 June near the Javari Valley Indigenous Territory, which sits near the borders of Peru and Colombia in western Brazil.

The two men were in the Sao Rafael community and were returning by boat to the nearby city of Atalaia do Norte but never arrived.

Local volunteers, the army, civil defence officials and state police have been searching for the pair since they went missing and police have launched a criminal investigation.

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Brazil Facebook head arrested for refusing to share WhatsApp data

Police in Brazil have arrested the vice president of the social media company Facebook in Latin America.

Diego Dzodan, an Argentine national, has repeatedly refused to comply with court orders to hand over data for use in a criminal investigation into drugs trafficking, police said.

His arrest relates to the messaging service WhatsApp, owned by Facebook.

In a statement, Facebook called Mr Dzodan’s arrest an “extreme and disproportionate measure”.

Mr Dzodan’s arrest was ordered by a judge in the north-eastern state of Sergipe.

He was held as he left his house in an exclusive area of Sao Paulo on Tuesday morning.

Judge Marcel Maia Montalvao had in two previous instances issued fines against Facebook for refusing to release WhatsApp data.

The information was needed as part “secrete judicial investigations involving organised crime and drug trafficking,” he said.

In a statement, Facebook said it was “disappointed with the extreme and disproportionate measure”.

“Facebook has always been and will be available to address any questions Brazilian authorities may have,” the company said.

In December a judge in Brazil suspended WhatsApp for 48 hours.

The Sao Paulo state judge said at the time that the company failed to comply with court orders to share information in a criminal case.

Sourced from – http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-35700733