RIO DE JANEIRO • Greece's ambassador to Brazil was murdered in a plot hatched by his Brazilian wife and her police officer lover, who has confessed to the crime, officials said.
The envoy, Mr Kyriakos Amiridis, 59, was killed on Monday by the officer, Sergio Gomez Moreira, Rio homicide division chief Evaristo Pontes told a news conference last Friday.
Mr Amiridis' charred body was found last Thursday in Rio in his burnt-out rental car, a day after his wife, Francoise de Souza Oliveira, declared him missing.
Oliveira, 40, and Moreira, 29, both admitted to having an affair, police said. The pair are in custody, along with Moreira's 24-year-old cousin, Eduardo Moreira de Melo, who allegedly also took part.
"This was a tragic, cowardly act, but we worked tirelessly to crack this case as soon as possible," said investigator Evaristo Magalhaes.
"It was a crime of passion."
Mr Amiridis, who was named ambassador this year, had been on a family vacation with his wife in the north of Rio de Janeiro since Dec 21.
They had been due to fly back to the capital Brasilia on Jan 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 version had contradictions. After Mr Amiridis' body was found in the burnt car under a bridge, police took Oliveira in for more questioning, and also detained Moreira.
Traces of blood were reportedly found on a sofa in the apartment Mr Amiridis and Oliveira had been using, leading investigators to believe he had been killed there, his body then placed in the rental car and driven to the spot it was found.
Mr Pontes said Oliveira had offered Moreira's cousin the equivalent of US$25,000 (S$36,186) to help with murdering the ambassador.
Moreira admitted that he and Mr Amiridis had a physical fight, and that he had strangled the ambassador in self-defence.
Oliveira denied participating in the murder itself, but confessed she knew of the crime.
Mr Amiridis had previously served as Greece's consul general in Rio from 2001 to 2004, when he met Oliveira. The couple have a 10-year-old daughter.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS
