Rio de Janeiro investigators suspect that Greece's ambassador to Brazil was murdered at the behest of his wife and a police officer with whom she was romantically involved, Globo TV reported on Friday, citing police sources.

Greek Ambassador Kyriakos Amiridis, 59, had been missing since Monday night. His Brazilian wife, Françoise, reported him missing to police on Wednesday. The pair have a 10-year-old daughter.

Police also confirmed to Globo TV that the body has been identified as being Amiridis.

Investigators told Globo TV they believe Amiridis' wife and the police officer, Sergio Moreira, arranged and possibly carried out the murder in a home where the diplomat and his wife were staying in a northern Rio suburb.

Both Amiridis' wife and the police officer were in police custody, and it was not known if they had retained lawyers. The Greek embassy in Brasilia declined to comment.

Police and Rio state security officials along with Greek officials declined to comment to Reuters on the television report, nor would they provide any other details.

In Athens, Greek foreign ministry spokesman Stratos Efthymiou said the government had no comment about the case.

Two other suspects were in custody, but they were not identified, Globo reported.

The O Globo newspaper earlier reported that blood was found on a couch inside the home. Globo TV on Friday afternoon showed police carrying a sofa into police headquarters.

A burned corpse was found Thursday evening inside the car that Amiridis and his wife had rented. It was parked under a highway overpass in the area where the couple had been staying.

On Thursday, police confirmed that the ambassador had been missing since Monday night, when he was last seen leaving the home of his wife's family.

The incident is another blow to Rio's image, just four months after it hosted the Summer Olympics.

The neighborhood where the car was found is dominated by powerful and politically connected armed groups mostly comprised of off-duty or retired police and firefighters who control vast areas. They are believed to often extort residents in exchange for keeping drug gangs from taking over the areas.

The armed groups have grown in strength in Rio for several years, and often curry favor with local politicians by promising to deliver votes from entire neighborhoods as long as authorities allow them to carry out their crimes.

Crime in Rio has been rising and the state is deeply indebted, often unable to pay police and other salaries on time, if at all.

Amiridis served as Greece's consul general in Rio from 2001 to 2004. He was Greece's ambassador to Libya from 2012 until he took the top Brazil post at the beginning of 2016.</s>The body found in a burned-out car in Rio de Janeiro may be Kyriakos Amiridis, Greece’s missing ambassador to Brazil.

The BBC reports Amiridis’s charred rental vehicle was found in Nova Iguacu, under a flyover on one of the main access roads to Rio. Police don’t believe he was kidnapped, as no one has reached out to his family with a ransom demand.

Kyriakos Amiridis was last seen Monday night, the police said in a statement.

A police spokeswoman later told The Associated Press that a family member reported him missing in Nova Iguacu, 40 kilometres north of Rio.

Greece’s Foreign Ministry said he had been on vacation in the Rio area.

The Greek ministry issued a statement saying it had “requested the full mobilization of Brazilian authorities,” but gave no details.

According to the Greek Embassy website in Brazil, Amiridis started his career as diplomat in 1985 in Athens and became Greece’s top diplomat in Brazil in 2016.

He earlier was Greece’s ambassador to Libya and worked as consul in Rio from 2001 and 2004.

Brazilian news website G1 reported that Amiridis’ wife has an apartment in Nova Iguacu.

The Greek foreign ministry said the embassy in Brasilia was informed Wednesday (sic) by people close to the ambassador that they have been unable to communicate with him since Monday.

With files from Nicholas Paphitis and the National Post</s>RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Police officials in Rio de Janeiro say that the Greek ambassador to Brazil, Kyriakos Amiridis, may have been a victim of a crime of passion and suspect the diplomat was killed at the home of his wife’s relatives and later put into a car which was burned.

The diplomat was reported missing on Tuesday by his wife after leaving family and friends on Monday night. Police confirmed that the burned car found in the metropolitan region was the one rented by the missing diplomat and that the charred body found inside the vehicle was taken to the medical examiners’ office to be identified.

“We’re now going to do the technical procedures to find out if the body was the ambassador’s,” said sheriff Evaristo Pontes, of the Baixada Fluminense Homicide Police force in Nova Iguaçu on Thursday night.

According to local news reports Amiridis’s wife, Françoise, who is Brazilian, was having an affair with a military police officer. The reports also say that blood was found on a sofa inside the house in Nova Iguaçu and that the furniture was taken by officers for further analysis. According to Globo, the police officer in question arrived at the police station at dawn on Friday with a lawyer for questioning.

Amiridis currently works in Brasilia as head of the Greek embassy and went on vacation in Rio de Janeiro, where he was the European country’s general counsel from 2001 to 2004.

The Greek embassy in Brasilia issued a statement on Thursday, stating that ‘The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Greek Embassy in Brasilia are monitoring the case closely and, in close cooperation with the Brazilian authorities, are taking all appropriate actions’.</s>Police in Rio de Janeiro are questioning the wife of Greece's ambassador to Brazil in connection with his disappearance.

Kyriakos Amiridis went missing on Monday in the city of Nova Iguacu, 25 miles north of Rio de Janeiro.

Greece's embassy in Brasilia said he had been on holiday near Rio.

The ambassador's wife, Francoise Amiridis, has now arrived at a police station in the Rio area for questioning.

The Greek embassy website in Brazil said Mr Amiridis started his career as diplomat in 1985 in Athens and became Greece's top diplomat in Brazil in 2016.

He was previously Greece's ambassador to Libya and worked as consul in Rio from 2001-2004.</s>Brazilian police suspect a body discovered inside a charred vehicle in Rio de Janeiro is Greece's ambassador to Brazil who went missing three days ago, television channel Globo reported on Thursday.

A police spokesman could not be immediately reached for comment.

Ambassador Kyriakos Amiridis, 59, was last seen Monday evening leaving the home of friends of his Brazilian wife in a poor and violent suburb of Rio's metropolitan area, police had said earlier on Thursday.

A Rio state police official said the ambassador's wife reported him as missing on Wednesday.

Globo showed images of the burned-out white car in the Nova Iguacu neighhourhood where the ambassador went missing. The station reported that the licence plates on the car matched those of Amiridis' rental vehicle.

An official at the Greek Embassy in Brasilia would not confirm the ambassador was missing, saying only that he was on holiday in Rio and expected to return to Brasilia on Jan. 9.

Rio police inspector Evaristo Pontes had earlier told the Folha de S.Paulo newspaper that he did not believe the ambassador was kidnapped.

"We're following some leads, but not that one. If it had been (a kidnapping), those who took him would have made contact by now," he said.

Mr Amiridis previously served as Greece's consul general in Rio from 2001 to 2004.

More recently he was Greece's ambassador to Libya from 2012 until he took the top Brazil post at the beginning of 2016.

Brazil's Foreign Ministry said it had no comment on the case, other than to say it was being fully pursued by police.

In Athens, Greece's Foreign Ministry had no comment.</s>RIO DE JANEIRO: The discovery of a burned-out car in Rio state on Thursday (Dec 29) with a body inside have sparked fears that it might be that of the Greek ambassador to Brazil, missing since Monday.

Rio police were examining the corpse and scene but could not say whether it was that of the envoy, 59-year-old Kyriakos Amiridis.

"The information that we can confirm right now is that we have found a car in (the district of) Nova Iguacu with a body and it is being investigated," a source in the homicide squad told AFP.

The source would not say whether the license plate of the car was from the rental the ambassador was using, nor when DNA results on the body would be back.

Amiridis had been on vacation with his family in Rio de Janeiro's northern Nova Iguacu area since December 21.

He was due to fly back to Brasilia on January 9, a Greek embassy official told AFP.

But he went missing on Monday night, after going out of the apartment they were renting and taking the car, according to Brazilian media. His Brazilian wife formally declared him missing on Wednesday.

The Brazilian news website published photos of the burned car found on the slope of a busy suburban thoroughfare. It reported that police "suspected" the body inside to be that of the ambassador.

The Greek foreign ministry had earlier issued a statement saying that after Amiridis was declared missing, "the full mobilization of all the competent Brazilian authorities was requested."

Amiridis was named ambassador this year. He had previously served as Greece's consul general in Rio from 2001 to 2004.

He served as Greece's ambassador to Libya from 2012 to 2016.

He is married and has a daughter, according to the embassy in Brasilia.</s>RIO DE JANEIRO — Authorities believe that Greece’s missing ambassador to Brazil was killed at the home that his wife kept in the Rio de Janeiro area, a police investigator said Friday.

Kyriakos Amiridis went missing on Monday in the city of Nova Iguacu, 25 miles (41 kilometres) north of Rio de Janeiro. Greece’s Embassy in Brasilia said the ambassador had been on vacation near Rio. The couple lived most of the time in Brasilia, the country’s capital.

Rio de Janeiro police investigator Giniton Lages told The Associated Press that blood spots believed to be those of the ambassador were found on a sofa inside the home of his Brazilian wife, Francoise Amiridis. Lages named the wife, along with another woman and two men, as suspects in the case.

A news conference was scheduled for later in the day.

The wife was being interrogated at a police station on Friday in connection with her husband’s disappearance. Authorities believe she had been having an extramarital affair with a police officer.

Another police investigator, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he didn’t want to be quoted giving details about the case before the news conference is held, said the ambassador and his wife fought three days before Christmas.

A third investigator, who also spoke on condition of anonymity for the same reason, said that a police officer had acknowledged participating in the ambassador’s killing.

Lages said authorities believe the ambassador’s body was taken from the house to a car that he had rented on Dec. 21. A burned vehicle matching the description of the rented car was found with a body inside it in Nova Iguacu, but forensics experts have not yet identified the dead person.

The Greek Embassy website in Brazil says Amiridis started his career as diplomat in 1985 in Athens and became Greece’s top diplomat in Brazil in 2016.

He earlier was Greece’s ambassador to Libya and worked as consul in Rio from 2001-2004.</s>RIO DE JANEIRO: Rio de Janeiro investigators suspect that Greece's ambassador to Brazil was murdered at the behest of his wife and a police officer with whom she was romantically involved, Globo TV reported on Friday, citing police sources.

Greek Ambassador Kyriakos Amiridis, 59, had been missing since Monday night. His Brazilian wife, Françoise, reported him missing to police on Wednesday. The pair have a 10-year-old daughter.

Police also confirmed to Globo TV that the body has been identified as being Amiridis.

Investigators told Globo TV they believe Amiridis' wife and the police officer, Sergio Moreira, arranged and possibly carried out the murder in a home where the diplomat and his wife were staying in a northern Rio suburb.

Police and Rio state security officials along with Greek officials declined to comment to Reuters on the television report, nor would they provide any other details.

In Athens, Greek foreign ministry spokesman Stratos Efthymiou said the government had no comment about the case.

Two other suspects were in custody, but they were not identified, Globo reported.

The O Globo newspaper earlier reported that blood was found on a couch inside the home. Globo TV on Friday afternoon showed police carrying a sofa into police headquarters.

A burned corpse was found Thursday evening inside the car that Amiridis and his wife had rented. It was parked under a highway overpass in the area where the couple had been staying.

On Thursday, police confirmed that the ambassador had been missing since Monday night, when he was last seen leaving the home of his wife's family.

The incident is another blow to Rio's image, just four months after it hosted the Summer Olympics.

The neighbourhood where the car was found is dominated by powerful and politically connected armed groups mostly comprised of off-duty or retired police and firefighters who control vast areas. They are believed to often extort residents in exchange for keeping drug gangs from taking over the areas.

The armed groups have grown in strength in Rio for several years, and often curry favour with local politicians by promising to deliver votes from entire neighbourhoods as long as authorities allow them to carry out their crimes.

Crime in Rio has been rising and the state is deeply indebted, often unable to pay police and other salaries on time, if at all.

Amiridis served as Greece's consul general in Rio from 2001 to 2004. He was Greece's ambassador to Libya from 2012 until he took the top Brazil post at the beginning of 2016.</s>RIO DE JANEIRO — Authorities believe that Greece’s missing ambassador to Brazil was killed at the home that his wife kept in the Rio de Janeiro area, a police investigator said Friday.

Kyriakos Amiridis went missing on Monday in the city of Nova Iguacu, 25 miles (41 kilometres) north of Rio de Janeiro. Greece’s Embassy in Brasilia said the ambassador had been on vacation near Rio. The couple lived most of the time in Brasilia, the country’s capital.

Rio de Janeiro police investigator Giniton Lages told The Associated Press that blood spots believed to be those of the ambassador were found on a sofa inside the home of his Brazilian wife, Francoise Amiridis. Lages named the wife, along with another woman and two men, as suspects in the case.

A news conference was scheduled for later in the day.

The wife was being interrogated at a police station on Friday in connection with her husband’s disappearance. Authorities believe she had been having an extramarital affair with a police officer.

Another police investigator, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he didn’t want to be quoted giving details about the case before the news conference is held, said the ambassador and his wife fought three days before Christmas.

A third investigator, who also spoke on condition of anonymity for the same reason, said that a police officer had acknowledged participating in the ambassador’s killing.

Lages said authorities believe the ambassador’s body was taken from the house to a car that he had rented on Dec. 21. A burned vehicle matching the description of the rented car was found with a body inside it in Nova Iguacu, but forensics experts have not yet identified the dead person.

The Greek Embassy website in Brazil says Amiridis started his career as diplomat in 1985 in Athens and became Greece’s top diplomat in Brazil in 2016.

He earlier was Greece’s ambassador to Libya and worked as consul in Rio from 2001-2004.</s>RIO De JANEIRO – Brazilian police said they believe a body found in a burned-out car is likely Greek Ambassador Kyriakos Amiridis, 59, who has been missing three days.

The TV channel Globo made the report. Amiridis, 59, was last seen on Dec. 26 leaving the home of friends of his Brazilian wife in a suburb of Rio’s metropolitan area, police had said earlier.

A state police official said the ambassador’s wife reported him as missing only two days later, on Dec. 28.

Globo showed images of the charred white car in the Nova Iguaçu neighbourhood where the Ambassador went missing and reported that the licence plates on the car matched those of Amiridis’s rental vehicle.

An official at the Greek embassy in Brasília would not confirm the Ambassador was missing, saying only that he was on vacation in Rio and expected to return to the capital on Jan. 9.

Rio police inspector Evaristo Pontes had earlier told the Folha de São Paulo newspaper that he did not believe the Ambassador was kidnapped. “We’re following some leads, but not that one,” he said. “If it had been (a kidnapping,), those who took him would have made contact by now.”

Amiridis was experienced in Brazil, having served as Consul General in Rio from 2001-04. He was Ambassador to Libya from 2012 until getting the top job in Brazil at the beginning of 2016.

Neither Brazil’s Foreign Ministry nor Greece’s would comment on the case.
A body found in a burnt-out vehicle north of the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro is confirmed to be that of missing Greek Ambassador Kyriakos Amiridis. A military police officer who had an affair with the ambassador's wife confesses to the murder. The wife and a second man are also detained.