Suspected killers of ecologists on trial in Brazil

Seed Daily via AFP: Three suspected killers of a couple who blew the whistle on illegal logging in the Brazilian Amazon went on trial Wednesday. Antonio Filho, a member of Brazil's Catholic Church-affiliated Pastoral Land Commission (CPT) who is monitoring the trial before a court in the Amazonian town of Maraba, said it was expected to last until Thursday .

In the dock are Jose Rodrigues Moreira, who allegedly masterminded the May 2011 ambush killing of Jose Claudio da Silva and his wife Maria do Espirito Santo near Maraba, and the two alleged perpetrators Lindonjonson Silva Rocha and Alberto Lopes do Nascimento.

The three were arrested in a jungle hideout 300 kilometers (180 miles) from Maraba in the northern state of Para.

The environmentalist couple had for years campaigned against loggers and ranchers who force slave labor to clear-cut large swaths of the Amazon...

Logging in Brazil, circa 1930