Kyriakos Amiridis (, 30 September 1957 – 26 December 2016) was a

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

career

diplomat A diplomat (from ; romanization, romanized ''diploma'') is a person appointed by a state (polity), state, International organization, intergovernmental, or Non-governmental organization, nongovernmental institution to conduct diplomacy with one ...

who served as the Ambassador of Greece to

Libya Libya, officially the State of Libya, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya border, the east, Sudan to Libya–Sudan border, the southeast, Chad to Chad–L ...

and

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

. He was reported missing on 28 December 2016 while serving as ambassador to Brazil and his body was found near

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...

the next day.

Career

Amiridis began working for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

in 1985 and was transferred to the

Ministry of Macedonia and Thrace The Ministry of Macedonia and Thrace () is a former ministry of Greece. Responsible for the regions of Macedonia and Thrace, since 2015 it has been demoted to the level of a sub-ministry within the Ministry of the Interior. The incumbent De ...

Thessaloniki Thessaloniki (; ), also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, Salonika, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece (with slightly over one million inhabitants in its Thessaloniki metropolitan area, metropolitan area) and the capital cit ...

. His first foreign position was at the Greek Embassy in

Belgrade Belgrade is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin, Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. T ...

Yugoslavia , common_name = Yugoslavia , life_span = 1918–19921941–1945: World War II in Yugoslavia#Axis invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia, Axis occupation , p1 = Kingdom of SerbiaSerbia , flag_p ...

from 1988. In 1993, Amiridis started working in

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

at the Permanent Representation of Greece to the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

. He returned to Greece in 1997 to work in the European Foreign Affairs Department at the Foreign Ministry in Athens. In 2000, Amiridis moved to Brazil to serve as the Consul General in

. Three years later, he became Consul General in

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...

, the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. After returning to Athens in 2008, Amiridis was in 2012 appointed to serve as the Ambassador of Greece to Libya. In 2016 he was chosen to serve as Ambassador to Brazil and he presented his credentials to Brazilian Acting President

Michel Temer Michel Miguel Elias Temer Lulia (; born 23 September 1940) is a Brazilian politician, lawyer and writer who served as the 37th president of Brazil from 31 August 2016 to 1 January 2019. He took office after the Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, impe ...

on 25 May 2016.

Personal life

In 2004 Amiridis married Françoise de Sousa Oliveira, a Brazilian national, and together they had one daughter.

Death

Amiridis was reported missing while on vacation in Rio de Janeiro in late December 2016. He was last heard from on the evening of 26 December when he sent a message from his phone. His wife Françoise reported him missing two days later and claimed that she had been unable to contact him. On 29 December, Brazilian police said a homicide team had launched an investigation into the ambassador's disappearance. Hours later, a body was found in a burnt-out car underneath an overpass of the Arco Metropolitano do Rio de Janeiro highway near

Nova Iguaçu Nova Iguaçu (, ''New Iguaçu'') is a municipality in Rio de Janeiro state in Brazil. Geography Location The city is named after the Iguaçu River that runs through it and empties into Guanabara Bay (not to be confused with the Iguaçu Rive ...

. The vehicle had been rented by Amiridis and the remains were positively identified as those of the ambassador. On 30 December, Amiridis's wife Françoise and two other people were detained in connection with the ambassador's apparent

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse committed with the necessary Intention (criminal law), intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisd ...

. One of the apprehended figures, military police officer Sérgio Gomes Moreira, is suspected of having been having an affair with Françoise; he confessed to the murder. The roles of the wife and the second man are still unclear. Police believe Amiridis was murdered in an apartment owned by the ambassador in Nova Iguaçu, where the couple and their daughter were staying for the Christmas holiday. Blood stains were found on a sofa in the apartment. On 29 August 2021, Amiridis's wife was found guilty of planning to murder her husband and given a 31-year prison sentence, while Sérgio Gomes Moreira was sentenced to 22 years in prison after confessing to having committed the murder. The judge described the assassination as "bestial".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Amiridis, Kyriakos 1957 births 2016 deaths Assassinated ambassadors 21st-century Greek diplomats 20th-century Greek politicians 21st-century Greek politicians Greek people murdered abroad People from Veria Ambassadors of Greece to Brazil Ambassadors of Greece to Libya People murdered in Brazil 2016 murders in Brazil