Wife of murdered Greek ambassador jailed in Brazil

Francoise Amiridis, the wife of Greece's Ambassador to Brazil Kyriakos Amiridis, arrives at a police station to be interrogated in connection with her husband's disappearance in Belford Roxo, Brazil, Friday, Dec. 30, 2016. Authorities believe that the ambassador was killed at the home his wife kept in the Rio de Janeiro area, after he went missing on Monday in the city of Nova Iguacu, just north of Rio de Janeiro. [Photo/IC]

RIO DE JANEIRO/ATHENS - The wife of the murdered Greek ambassador to Brazil was jailed on Saturday after being accused of masterminding his killing in a suburb of Rio de Janeiro.

A Rio court ordered Francoise Amiridis, the 40-year-old Brazilian to be placed in provisional custody for 30 days. She had been married to Kyriakos Amiridis for 15 years and they had a 10-year-old daughter.

In a statement, Rio police said she had been jailed in a feminine wing of Bangu prison, the largest in the city.

Francoise was arrested Friday, along with a policeman, who has an affair with Francoise and is suspected of having murdered the ambassador. The policeman's cousin was also arrested for involvement in the case.

The two men confessed Francoise Amiridis offered them 80,000 reais (around 24,400 U.S. dollars) for the murder.

Kyriakos Amiridis, 59, was found dead in a burnt car below a bridge in Novo Iguacu, a northern suburb of Rio on Thursday.

Greece's Foreign Ministry said Saturday that the death of Amiridis was tragic.

"We express our deepest sorrow at the tragic death of Ambassador Kyriakos Amiridis, a friend of Brazil, who throughout his diplomatic career served Greece conscientiously and responsibly," the ministry said in a statement.

The 59-year-old diplomat assumed duties as Greece's ambassador to Brazil in January 2016. He had served in Rio de Janeiro as consul from 2001 to 2004, according to the Greek Ministry statement.

The late diplomat had also served at the Permanent Mission of Greece to the European Union, at the General Consulate in Rotterdam, and at the Greek Embassy in Belgrade during the first phase of the war in Yugoslavia, the statement said.

"A milestone in his career was his term as Ambassador of Greece in Tripoli, Libya, and his decisive role in the evacuation, under conditions of extreme violence, of the Embassy staff, of Greeks in Libya as well as of thousands of third-country nationals from Libya in the summer of 2014," said the statement.