TWENTY-FIVE-year-old Jonas Perreira, brutally beaten by two Brazilians miners who allegedly murdered his 14-year-old friend, Elton Thompson, at Chinee Creek, Puruni Backdam, last Tuesday, was yesterday discharged from the Georgetown Public Hospital. Perreira, a miner from Copenang, Region Eight, told this newspaper that he and Elton Thompson worked with a Brazilian mining camp at Puruni Backdam.
On the night of January 11, around 21:00hrs, they were drinking at Chinee Landing when two Brazilian miners, following a misunderstanding with his friend Thompson, began beating him.
One of the men, he said, jumped on Thompson, and allegedly broke his neck.
Then they turned on Perreira and beat him with a piece of wood. He sustained a fractured skull and a cut down the back of his head, carrying several stitches.
The injured Perreira said that the dead man was taken to Bartica and a report was made to the Bartica Police.
Perreira was sent to the Georgetown Public Hospital where he was treated and warded for one week.
Meanwhile, police reportedly on Monday arrested one of the Brazilian suspects in the murder at Itaballi, Region Seven.
Investigations are continuing.