Peru court hands lengthy prison terms in killing of Indigenous Amazon defender

Peru's court has convicted four men of murder-for-hire and sentenced them to between 15 and 35 years in prison for the 2023 killing of Indigenous rainforest defender Quinto Inuma Alvarado. The case, seen as a test of accountability for violence against Indigenous and environmental defenders in the Amazon, came nearly 1,000 days after Inuma's killing.

The four men sentenced were Genix Saboya Saboya and Limber Ríos Ruiz, each given 35 years, Segundo Juan Villalobos Guevara, a timber operator accused of ordering Inuma's killing, was sentenced to 28 years and four months, and Jerly Saboya Saboya, convicted as an accomplice, received 15 years. Inuma, a 50-year-old Kichwa leader, was shot and killed while traveling by boat back to his community in Peru's northern Amazonian region of San Martin.

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