Brazilian officials: Greek ambassador killed by wife's lover

Greece's ambassador to Brazil, Kyriakos Amiridis, at a government ceremony in Brasilia, Brazil. (Marcos Correa/Brazil's presidential press office via AP)

Police in Brazil believe that Greece's ambassador to the country was killed by his wife's lover under her orders in a house in the Rio area and have detained three suspects, authorities said Friday.

Kyriakos Amiridis, 59, was last seen Monday night, the police said in a statement. A burned body the police believe is the diplomat's was found inside his torched car in Rio.

Francoise, his Brazilian wife and the mother of their 10-year-old daughter, reported him missing Wednesday, Reuters reported.

On Friday, police investigator Evaristo Pontes Magalhaes said that 29-year-old police officer Sergio Gomes Moreira Filho had confessed to killing Amiridis, alleging self-defense.

Globo TV reported that investigators said they believed Françoise and Moreira had arranged the murder in advance.

Francoise has denied any role in the alleged plot. According to Magalhaes, Francoise said she couldn't stop Filho from killing her husband and insisted she was not at home at the time of the crime.

A police investigator said in a press conference late Friday that the "evidence clearly puts the ambassador's wife as a co-author of the crime."

"All our evidence suggests that her motivation was to use the financial resources left by the ambassador so she could enjoy life with Sergio," the police officer, Magalhaes said.

Both Amiridis' wife and the officer were in custody, but it was not clear if they had retained lawyers, Reuters reported.

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 the wife.

Another investigator said the ambassador and his wife fought three days before Christmas.

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 by people close to the ambassador that they had been unable to communicate with him since Monday.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.