Dom PHILLIPS

Image Credit: Marcos Corrêa/PR via Creative Commons

British journalist and author Dom Phillips and Indigenous issues expert Bruno Pereira were killed in 2022 during a fact-finding trip in the Indigenous territory of the Javari Valley in the Brazilian Amazon. Phillips was working at the time on a book about sustainable development entitled How to Save the Amazon, and Pereira, who had close contacts with local Indigenous groups, was providing support with interviews. Trial proceedings against some defendants accused of their murder continued in 2025 (see Case Lists 2022-2025). 

In June 2025, the Federal Court in Tabatinga (Amazonas) accepted charges brought by the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office (MPF) against Rubén Dario da Silva Villar, known as ‘Colômbia,’ as the alleged mastermind behind the murders of Pereira and Phillips. Prosecutors allege da Silva Villar led an illegal fishing operation and provided support, ammunition, and boats to the group that carried out the killings. Evidence presented, including phone records and witness statements, identifies him as the financier and coordinator. In November 2025, the case was transferred to the Federal Regional Court of the 1st Region, with two other related charges (of organised crime and concealment of a corpse) being merged with the murder charge. Villar’s jury trial had not begun by the end of the year. 

Dom Phillips, born on 23 July 1964, worked as a freelance journalist for many international media outlets including the Guardian, the Financial Times, the Washington Post, the New York Times and the Intercept. Most of his investigations were about environmental issues. In 2018, Phillips reported on the threats posed by illegal mining and cattle ranchers to uncontacted indigenous peoples in the Brazil’s Javari Valley. How to Save the Amazon, the book Phillips had been writing before his death, was published posthumously in May 2025.