Rio de Janeiro // 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, police said.
Kyriakos Amiridis, 59, was killed on Monday by the officer, Sergio Gomez Moreira, said Evaristo Pontes, a homicide investigator in the Rio police.
Amiridis’s charred body was found in Rio in his burnt-out rental car on Thursday, a day after his wife, Francoise de Souza Oliveira, declared him missing.
Ms Oliveira, 40, and Mr Moreira, 29, both admitted to having an affair, police said.
The pair are in custody, along with Mr Moreira’s 24-year-old cousin, Eduardo Moreira de Melo, who allegedly also took part.
According to the homicide division chief, Ms Oliveira denied participating in the murder itself, but confessed she knew of the crime.
Amiridis, who was appointed ambassador this year, had been on a family holiday with his wife since December 21, spending Christmas with her family north of Rio de Janeiro. 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 story contained contradictions, and after Amiridis’s body was found in the burnt-out car under a bridge, police took her in for more questioning, and also detained Mr Moreira.
Traces of blood were reportedly found on a sofa in the apartment Amiridis and his wife had been staying in, leading investigators to believe he had been killed there, before his body was placed in the rental car and driven to the spot where it was discovered.
Mr Pontes said that Ms Oliveira had offered Mr Moirera’s cousin the equivalent of $25,000 (Dh91,800) to help with the murder.
Mr Moreira said that he and Amiridis had had a fight and that he strangled the ambassador in self-defence.
Amiridis met his wife when he served as Greece’s consul general in Rio from 2001 to 2004. The couple have a 10-year-old daughter.
A Greek police team was heading to Brazil to take part in the investigation, while Greece’s ambassador in Argentina was travelling 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 behaviour and we apologise to the entire Greek population,” said the director of Rio’s homicide division, Rivaldo Barbosa.
He said the murder was “isolated” and a crime of passion that had nothing to do with Rio’s elevated levels of violence.
Rio de Janeiro, though picturesque, has a reputation as a dangerous place. The host city of the 2016 Olympics has seen crime rates soar in recent months, fuelled 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.
* Agence France-Presse
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Flight connections to Ulaanbaatar are available through a variety of hubs, including Seoul and Beijing, with airlines including Mongolian Airlines and Korean Air. While some nationalities, such as Americans, don’t need a tourist visa for Mongolia, others, including UAE citizens, can obtain a visa on arrival, while others including UK citizens, need to obtain a visa in advance. Contact the Mongolian Embassy in the UAE for more information.
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Bharatanatyam
A ancient classical dance from the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Intricate footwork and expressions are used to denote spiritual stories and ideas.
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Cricket World Cup League Two
Oman, UAE, Namibia
Al Amerat, Muscat
Results
Oman beat UAE by five wickets
UAE beat Namibia by eight runs
Fixtures
Wednesday January 8 –Oman v Namibia
Thursday January 9 – Oman v UAE
Saturday January 11 – UAE v Namibia
Sunday January 12 – Oman v Namibia
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Starring: Kareena Kapoor Khan, Ash Tandon, Prabhleen Sandhu
Director: Hansal Mehta
Rating: 4 / 5
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2. Paul Pogba - to Manchester United in 2016/17 - €105m
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8. Luis Suarez - to Barcelona in 2014/15 - €81.72m
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Starring: Nicole Kidman, Liev Schreiber, Jack Reynor
Creator: Jenna Lamia
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Greatest of All Time
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FTO designations impose immigration restrictions on members of the organisation simply by virtue of their membership and triggers a criminal prohibition on knowingly providing material support or resources to the designated organisation as well as asset freezes.
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Director: Paul Weitz
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Sustainable Development Goals
1. End poverty in all its forms everywhere
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Company: Justmop.com
Date started: December 2015
Founders: Kerem Kuyucu and Cagatay Ozcan
Sector: Technology and home services
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