Legal Support in a Precedent-Setting Murder Trial
Since 2014, Rainforest Foundation US has lobbied to ensure that the murder of four indigenous activists in Saweto, Peru be tried as an organized crime, ensuring that those who ordered the murders are also held accountable, and not just the triggermen.
These efforts have included lobbying the federal courts to dismiss the lead prosecutor, who had undisclosed conflicts of interest in the case and was maneuvering to throw the charges out; lobbying to have a prosecutor from outside the jurisdiction try the case, so as to avoid other potential conflicts of interest; and providing a safe house to the family members of the murder victims while they awaited the trial.
After many delays, the Superior Court of Justice in Ucayali, Peru has finally begun the criminal trial in the murder of these four victims, who had been engaged in a years-long struggle to stop a multinational logging company from illegally deforesting their territory. Following years of escalating threats, the men went missing in September 2014, their bodies later discovered on a river bank just beyond their community.