Greek envoy’s wife and two men detained
BRAZIL - Authorities in Brazil believe that the Greek ambassador who went missing on 26 December has been killed and have named his Brazilian wife, a police officer and another man as suspects in the case. Local police have said that the officer, who was romantically involved with the diplomat’s wife, has confessed to the killing at her direction. The third man, believed to be the officer’s cousin, is believed to have acted as lookout and helped move the ambassador’s body. All three are being held in jail as the investigation continues, the investigators told a news conference in Rio. Police have detained the suspects for 30 days on a judicial order and will recommend charges against all three for homicide, said Adilson Palacio, a spokesman for the Rio homicide division. He said that the indications were that a body found in a burnt-out car was that of Kyriakos Amiridis, 59, who was reported missing on 28 December by his wife, Françoise Oliveira. She told police that Amiridis had left the condominium where the couple were staying in Nova Iguaçu, a town 25 miles inland from Rio de Janeiro, two nights earlier, without saying where he was going. The couple had been together 15 years, and have a 10-year-old daughter, according to another officer working on the case, who was not authorised to give his name publicly. Palacio said that bloodstains believed to be from the ambassador were found on a sofa inside the home of his wife. Amiridis began his career in 1985 at the Greek foreign ministry and was Greek consul in Rio from 2001-04. He became Greece’s ambassador to Libya in 2012 and returned to Brazil as an ambassador earlier this year.
(theguardian)