A police officer accused of heading a paramilitary militia has denied any part in the kidnapping and torture of two journalists.

Police investigator Claudio Ferraz said Tuesday that Odinei Fernando da Silva voluntarily turned himself in Monday after spending 13 days in hiding.

Investigators say Silva heads the militia that controls the Bantan shantytown where two undercover journalists say they were seized along with their driver and tortured for nearly eight hours on May 14.

Militias are relatively new in Rio de Janeiro, moving into shantytowns and charging residents monthly protection against drug gangs. Officials estimate militias now control about 15 percent of Rio’s more than 600 slums.

The reporters, who work for Rio’s O Dia newspaper, said they were taken to a “private prison” and beaten, given electric shocks and had plastic bags placed over their heads. The journalists suffered no lasting injuries and were released with orders not to identify their captors, O Dia reported.

Silva’s lawyer Andre Luiz Gomes said his client could prove he was not at the scene of the torture and that he failed to show up for work since June 4 because of health problems.

“He’s already proved he wasn’t there. And ‘militia’ is not defined as a crime under the penal code,” Gomes told reporters Monday.

Silva, who has not been formally charged, will remain jailed for at least 30 days under a judge’s order, Ferraz said.

Police earlier arrested Davi Liberato de Araujo, accused of being the militia’s second in command, in connection with the episode.

The report of torture stirred outrage in Brazil and abroad. Reporters Without Borders called for an immediate federal inquiry and Amnesty International said it was a threat to press freedom.

Amnesty also said the episode showed how the militias _ shadowy groups of former and active-duty police, soldiers and firefighters _ extort shantytown residents while employing ruthless tactics as they force out drug gangs.