Brazilian TV host ‘ordered murders for ratings’

A Brazilian TV host is alleged to have ordered at least five murders to boost his ratings. Wallace Souza, the politician presenter of top-rated crime show Canal Livre on which he railed against violent crime, often managed to be first on the scene with his cameraman at gangland killings.

Now Brazilian police say he was a drugs trafficker who ordered killings to get rid of his rivals, create scoops for his programme and lend support to his political contention that crime is out of control in Amazonas state.

Souza, a former policeman who was thrown out of the force, denies the "absurd" charges. His lawyer said yesterday that there was not one piece of evidence to support the claims, while Souza says the charges have been concocted by his political enemies and by drug dealers angered by his two decades of TV crime exposes.

But Amazonas state police intelligence chief Thomaz Vasconcelos insisted Souza was a criminal, saying: "The order to execute always came from the legislator and his son, who then alerted the TV crews to get to the scene." He added that the killings "appear to have been committed to get rid of his rivals and increase the audience of the TV show".

As a politician, Wallace Souza has immunity from prosecution and remains free. His son Rafael, however, has been jailed, accused of ordering the killings with his father, and facing drugs trafficking and gun possession charges.

Insisting on his innocence, Souza said: "I was the one who arranged legislative inquiries into organised crime, the prison system, corruption, drug trafficking by police, and paedophilia."

But the police view is supported by Brazil's government. Security secretary Francisco Cavalcanti said there was no doubt of Wallace and Rafael Souza's guilt: "On several occasions they fabricated the facts, they fabricated news." ·