Three indicted by Brazilian police for Amazon murders Published duration 21 July 2011

image caption Joao Claudio and Maria had received numerous threats, their family said

Police in Brazil have indicted three people for the killing of a couple of prominent environmental activists in the Amazon three months ago.

The campaigners were shot dead in a forest reserve in the northern state of Para.

The police said the couple had been opposing the eviction of rural workers from land owned by a local farmer, accused of arranging the killings.

The landowner and the two suspect gunmen remain at large.

The environmentalists - Jose Claudio Ribeiro da Silva and his wife, Maria do Espirito Santo da Silva - had lived in the town of Nova Ipixuna for 18 years.

'Many motives'

They were killed due to their opposition to the eviction of three rural workers from land owned by a local farmer, Jose Rodrigues Moreira, police said.

He is accused of organising the killings with his brother, Lindonjonson Moreira Silva, and another man, Alberto Lopes do Nascimento.

The 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, police chief Silvio Maues said.

But a sister of Mr Silva, Claudelice Silva, told Globo TV in Brazil that there were other motives for their killings.

"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 to environmental activists most at risk.

But the three men indicted remain at large and no arrest warrants have been issued.

The Catholic Church's Pastoral Land Commission (CPT) has a list of 125 activists who have received death threats - many of them in the Amazon region.