"A judge in Brazil has found two men guilty of the murder in 2011 of two activists in the Amazon rainforest. The men were sentenced to more than 40 years in prison. A third man accused of masterminding the attack was acquitted.
Jose Claudio Ribeiro da Silva and his wife, Maria do Espiritu Santo, were shot dead in a forest reserve in the northern state of Para.
The couple were known for campaigning against illegal logging in the Amazon and had faced numerous threats.
The police said the couple had been opposing the eviction of rural workers from land owned by a local farmer. The farmer was found not guilty of arranging the killings by the judge in Maraba in northern Brazil on Thursday.
However, two other men - Alberto Lopes do Nascimento and Lindonjonson Silva Rocha - were imprisoned for 45 years and 42 years respectively. At the time of the murder, police said two gunmen hid in the forest early in the morning and shot the couple as they slowed down to cross a bridge on a motorbike.
The campaigners had lived in the town of Nova Ipixuna for 18 years. A sister of Mr Silva, Claudelice Silva, told Globo TV in Brazil that they had many enemies.
"There were a lot of people who wanted them dead because they constantly denounced environmental crimes," she said.
Local authorities say they often reported on the illegal activities of loggers and cattle ranchers in the region.
The Brazilian President, Dilma Rousseff, ordered a federal police investigation at the time, and the authorities promised to increase protection for environmental activists most at risk.
A group that keeps a tally of land-related threats and deaths, the Catholic Land Pastoral, said last month that illegal logging and the resulting conflicts were responsible for most of the 32 murders of local activists last year.
It said most of the murders were carried out by gunmen hired by loggers, ranchers and farmers to silence protests over illegal logging and land rights in the Amazon rainforest."
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Two men convicted but man who ordered killings is acquitted as is most often the case, per article:
4/5/13, "Brazil acquits suspect in activist murders," Al Jazeera
"Alleged mastermind behind killing of two environmental activists set free, disappointing family of murdered couple."
"Jose Claudio da Silva and his wife, Maria do Espirito Santo, had for years campaigned against loggers and ranchers who force slave labour to clear-cut large swaths of the Amazon.
They had reported illegal loggers to police and federal prosecutors,
and were killed in a May 2011 ambush near the Amazonian town of Maraba....
"This is a clear defeat for the families of the victims," said Al Jazeera's Gabriel Elizondo, reporting from the court. "This was the person they really wanted to see go to jail.
"There are about 100 people outside the court; family members, friends, acquaintances. They're all chanting 'justice' and 'crime'."
Prosecutors vowed to appeal the acquittal of Moreira.
Prosecutors accused Moreira of ordering the killings because the Silvas opposed the eviction of three families occupying his land in the Nova Ipixuna reserve. "The verdict was to a certain point a positive one because those who shot the guns were convicted," said Edmundo Rodrigues Costa, the national coordinator of the Catholic Land Pastoral watchdog group that tracks land-related violence.
"But the verdict unfortunately again showed that those who order people killed enjoy impunity," he said.
Moreira and the two men convicted were arrested in a jungle hideout 300km from Maraba in the northern state of Para after the attack.
The murder was the first in a series of 10 over a three-month period in the Amazon, most of them in Para.
Para is among Brazil's most violent and lawless states, notorious for land-related violence, contract killings, slave-like labour conditions and wanton environmental destruction.
Last month, the Land Pastoral said the number of rural activists
killed in the country rose 10 percent from 2011 to 2012, with most
deaths occurring in the Amazon region.
It said in a report that illegal logging and the resulting conflicts were responsible for the majority of the 32 slayings of local activists in Brazil last year.
In Brazil, killings over land are common and seldom punished, as powerful landowners clash with farmers and others for control of lucrative farming and logging land.
The slayings are mostly carried out by gunmen hired by loggers, ranchers and farmers to silence protests over illegal logging and land rights in the environmentally sensitive region."
It said in a report that illegal logging and the resulting conflicts were responsible for the majority of the 32 slayings of local activists in Brazil last year.
In Brazil, killings over land are common and seldom punished, as powerful landowners clash with farmers and others for control of lucrative farming and logging land.
The slayings are mostly carried out by gunmen hired by loggers, ranchers and farmers to silence protests over illegal logging and land rights in the environmentally sensitive region."
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