BRAZIL ( 5 Cops arrested for the Murder of a Journalist and photographer )

Five Brazilian Police Arrested in Journalists’ Deaths

BRASILIA – Five Brazilian police officers were arrested for their suspected role in the murders of journalist Rodrigo Neto de Faria and press photographer Walgney Carvalho, the daily Folha de Sao Paulo said Saturday.

The five officers are members of the Civil Police in the region known as Vale do Aço in the central part of Minas Gerais state, and are suspected of belonging to militia groups that operate in the area, the newspaper said.

Rodrigo Neto, who worked for the Vale do Aço newspaper, was slain by unknown persons on March 9 at the door of his home, and at the time was specifically working on an investigative report about the activities of those militias.

Carvalho, from the same newspaper, was shot dead on April 14 at a restaurant.

Minas Gerais Police Chief Cylton Brandao declined to make any comment on the police who have been arrested.

According to Brandao, the investigation into the case requires a strict “confidentiality,” though he said that everything points to the prompt capture of the suspects for both murders, which according to local media are closely related.

The press watchdog group Reporters Without Borders, known by the French initials RSF, has slammed the murders and demanded that Brazilian authorities investigate the possible involvement of police in these cases.

After Carvalho’s death, RSF released a communique in which it also noted that the photographer was the fourth journalism professional murdered in Brazil to date in 2013.