BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — A court in Peru on Monday evening found four men guilty in a contract-killing case and imposed prison sentences ranging from 15 to 35 years for the 2023 murder of Indigenous forest defender Quinto Inuma Alvarado. The closely followed proceedings were widely viewed as a major test of whether violence against Indigenous and environmental advocates in the Amazon would be punished.

Genix Saboya Saboya and Limber Ríos Ruiz each received 35-year prison terms. Segundo Juan Villalobos Guevara, a timber businessman accused by prosecutors of commissioning the murder, was sentenced to 28 years and four months. Jerly Saboya Saboya was convicted as an accomplice and given a 15-year sentence.

Inuma, a 50-year-old Kichwa leader, was fatally shot on Nov. 29, 2023, while returning by boat to Santa Rosillo de Yanayacu, his community in Peru’s northern Amazon region of San Martin. He had been attending a national gathering of environmental and land defenders. A woman traveling with him was shot and injured.

The decision arrived almost 1,000 days after Inuma was killed. Tom Younger, Peru program coordinator for the Forest Peoples Programme, described the sentences as a “decisive step towards justice,” saying they demonstrated that impunity in the murders of Indigenous defenders “is not inevitable.”

According to prosecutors, Inuma was targeted for working to halt illegal timber extraction on his community’s territory. They alleged that Villalobos, whom Inuma had accused of illegal logging, ordered the assassination, while the other defendants organized and executed the attack.

Cristina Gavancho, an attorney with the Lima-based Legal Defense Institute who has supported Indigenous groups and the victims’ relatives since the murder, called the judgment an “exemplary sentence.” She said the lengthy terms could establish an important standard for similar cases involving environmental defenders in Peru.

Gavancho said no previous Peruvian case involving the murder of an Indigenous defender had produced penalties this severe.

Inuma repeatedly alerted officials to threats

The trial opened on Jan. 20 and lasted nearly eight months. In March, judges traveled from Lima to the Amazonian city of Tarapoto for three days of proceedings, during which they heard statements from Inuma’s relatives, additional witnesses and a survivor of the shooting.

For years, Inuma had spoken out against unlawful logging, narcotics trafficking and invasions of his community’s land. From 2016 through 2023, residents of Santa Rosillo de Yanayacu submitted 13 complaints to prosecutors regarding environmental offenses and drug activity, according to the Legal Defense Institute.

Peru’s Justice Ministry determined in 2021 that Inuma faced a high level of danger and directed police to protect him and his brother. Local officials also issued safeguards intended to shield him from illegal logging groups. However, police later admitted they could not conduct preventive patrols in the isolated area because they lacked funds for boats and faced challenging terrain, according to records cited by the Legal Defense Institute.

Kevin Arnol Inuma, the slain leader’s 30-year-old son, said relatives reacted to the ruling with both relief and grief after waiting nearly three years for accountability.

“Previously, the state did not respond, so those responsible were not afraid to kill,” he said by telephone shortly after the decision. “This now creates a precedent for Indigenous communities and for environmental defenders.”

Indigenous leader slain one day before ruling

Inuma’s murder came to symbolize the threats confronting Indigenous communities that protect forests and ancestral territories in the Peruvian Amazon. Illegal logging, narcotics operations, mining and land seizures have increasingly entered distant regions where government institutions have little presence.

The continuing danger was highlighted again only one day before the verdict. Américo Pascuala Tomisha, a 57-year-old Ashéninka leader and former head of the Onconashari Indigenous community, was shot and killed Sunday while monitoring community lands in the Amazonian region of Ucayali, according to the regional Indigenous organization ORAU.

ORAU said Pascuala encountered people who were allegedly collecting oil from copaiba trees within the community’s territory and was shot following a confrontation. The group said he had previously reported intrusions by settlers and other outsiders. On Monday, it urged officials to investigate his death and improve security for Indigenous leaders.

Pascuala’s death occurred weeks after Asháninka communities near the Peru-Brazil frontier warned of armed entries into Indigenous lands. In July, Indigenous leaders in neighboring Brazil requested government protection after five machine-gun-carrying men entered their territory, intimidated families and searched for community representatives. Peru and Brazil later agreed to expand coordination to safeguard Indigenous territories along their shared Amazon border.

Relatives say danger continues despite convictions

The court additionally awarded 750,000 soles, approximately $223,500, to Inuma’s legal heirs and 250,000 soles, about $74,500, to Axeldina Barbarán Tapullima, who survived the attack with injuries. Gavancho said the compensation would be payable only after the judgment becomes final, since it remains subject to appeal. The defendants have five days from receipt of the complete written decision to challenge it.

Gavancho said the judgment mattered not only for the substantial prison sentences but also because the court acknowledged compensation for Inuma’s relatives and the wounded survivor.

“I believe this landmark case may become a reference point for other proceedings concerning environmental defenders in Peru,” Gavancho said.

Inuma’s son said, however, that his relatives still do not feel secure and remain concerned about what might happen if the convicted men are ultimately released.

He said his father had devoted years to protecting territory inherited by the community from earlier generations, and that this duty had now fallen to his family and fellow residents.

He added that he hoped relatives of other murdered defenders would not face similarly long waits as their cases proceed through Peru’s courts.

“They cannot return our loved ones to us, but we still seek justice for the other defenders whose cases remain unresolved,” he said. “My father can now rest peacefully because justice has finally been delivered.”