Ex-soccer club manager arrested in Brazil over murder

BRASILIA: Police in the central Brazilian state of Goias said Monday they have arrested four people, including the former head of a local soccer club, in connection with the killing of a journalist last year.

In July 2012, sports journalist Valerio Luiz de Oliveira, 49, was leaving the radio station where he worked in Goiania, capital of Goias, when he was shot and killed by a man riding on a motorcycle.

Mauricio Sampaio, the former vice president of Atletico Goianense -- who denied any role in the killing -- was arrested Saturday and was to be questioned Monday, a police official said.

Paris-based media watchdog Reporters Without Borders said de Oliveira had sharply criticized Sampaio in his reporting.

According to local press reports, the three other suspects, including one who confessed firing on the victim, were arrested on Friday.

Reporters Without Borders hailed the progress in the investigation and "the efforts in the fight against impunity."

De Oliveira was one of five journalists killed in Brazil last year "for reasons linked to his professional activities," Reporters Without Borders said.