Greek ambassador killed by Wife’s Lover in Brazil

The Brazilian Police has revealed that missing Greek ambassador to the country was killed by a local police officer who was having an affair with his wife in a crime best described as a crime of passion.

Greek Ambassador, Kyriakos Amiridis had been missing since Monday but his body was found in a burnt-out car on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro on Thursday.

Police in Brazil say the ambassador’s Brazilian wife, Francoise Amiridis, 40 plotted the murder with her lover BBC reports.

The police officer involved , Sergio Gomes Moreira Filho, 29, confessed to strangling him to death, police said.

Both suspects have been detained alongside the cousin of the policeman, Eduardo Melo who is said to have been paid about 80,000 reais ($25,000) to act as a lookout while the ambassador was being murdered. They will be held for at least 30 days before being charged.

Evaristo Pontes Magalhaes, the Investigator says the police are treating the murder as a “crime of passion”, described the it as “a tragic, cowardly act,”

“Francoise initially denied the facts. She said she had nothing to do with that. We managed to make her see that she had no alternative and that there was no point in continuing to deny it,” said Mr Magalhaes at a press conference.

“She fell into contradictions, burst into tears and began to say that the police officer [Sergio Moreira] had carried out her husband’s murder,” he added.

Magalhaes said Moreira killed the ambassador after he went to confront him about claims of violence against his wife.

Moreira said he acted in self defence. But Brazilian police said he was lying.

They say the policeman’s cousin confessed to moving the ambassador’s body and gave full details of the plot to murder Amiridis, implicating both Moreira and Mrs Amiridis.

The 59-year-old ambassador had travelled from Brasilia to the city of Nova Iguacu, north of Rio, to spend the Christmas and New Year holidays there with his wife and her parents.

Mrs Amiridis, who had been living with the ambassador for 15 years, reported her husband missing on Wednesday.

She told police that he had left on Monday in a car he had rented. The burnt-out vehicle was found on Thursday under a flyover on one of the main access roads to Rio with a body inside.

The body was burned beyond recognition, but police said it was that of Mr Amiridis.

Investigators also said that they had found blood stains on the sofa in the house where the couple was staying and say he was probably stabbed to death there.