As a result, the search restarted for Khan, and his relatives along with members of the police anti-kidnapping squad visited Brazil to assist civil police in the search.

In other developments, a source in Brazil told Stabroek News yesterday that Paulo Cesar `Buckley’, one of the four men who allegedly kidnapped Khan, and who was born in Lethem but raised in Bom Fin, Brazil has confessed in his statement that the Civil police were involved in the kidnapping. According to the source, Cesar said he was not a part of the plan to kidnap Khan and was threatened to stay quiet or else he would be executed. Reports are that the man’s family was also threatened. Stabroek News was told that Cesar was told by the other officers that they were on a normal operation to pick up a prisoner from the bus. The source said Cesar confirmed that the white car which was used belonged to him and that he had charged the men $50 Brazilian dollars to take them. The source told this newspaper that Cesar confessed that he was the translator and was the one who spoke English to Khan in the minibus.

Stabroek News understands that Cesar asked Khan to disembark the vehicle and as soon as he did that, the other men handcuffed him and bundled him into the car. Khan was taken to Boa Vista, according to the source, and was later transferred to Adail Rodrigues’ car, another accused. Cesar reportedly confessed that he saw Khan the next day tied up and bleeding in the car trunk and it looked like he had been tortured. There were plastic bags and a spade in the car. Buckley said the next day one of the other officers had told him he had left Khan on a deserted road with his passport.

Buckley remains in police custody in a separate cell from his alleged accomplices.

Khan is the owner of the Savannah Guest House in Lethem and was taken off a 52-seat bus bound for Manaus on June 22. Three men, all dressed in federal police uniforms, ordered him into a car and they drove off in the direction of Boa Vista. The abductors had made contact with Khan’s family and demanded $5M for his release. The three other officers in custody are Domingo Pereira de Aquino, Adail Rodrigues Borges known as `Spider’, and Francisco Guimaraes known as `Hawk’.