MEXICO CITY — A Honduran court on Thursday found seven men guilty of murder in the 2016 assassination of an Indigenous environmental leader whose opposition to a dam project brought her an international prominence that still failed to protect her life.

The verdict, delivered by a panel of judges after a six-week trial in the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa, ended a proceeding bitterly denounced by the family of the environmentalist, Berta Cáceres, and the organization that she led.

They criticized the prosecution for focusing its efforts on those believed to have carried out the crime, and disregarding evidence that could have implicated powerful business leaders in its planning.

“This is undoubtedly a first step towards justice,” said Marcia Aguiluz Soto, the director for Central America and Mexico at the Center for Justice and International Law, a human rights group that has worked closely with the family. “But of course there are other people who are the ones who paid for the assassination of Berta Cáceres and they should be here.”