Activist Juan Lopez, who was also a local lawmaker, was shot on the night of September 14 as he left a church in the northeastern town of Tocoa. The killing drew international condemnation from the United Nations and Pope Francis.

A special court section ordered Tuesday a trial for three defendants named Oscar Alexis Guardado, Daniel Juarez and Lenis Adonis Cruz on charges of murder and racketeering, the justice ministry said in a statement.

It said that in the trial, prosecutors hope to find out who the masterminds of the killing were. The three defendants are accused of actually killing Lopez.

Lopez advocated the closing of an iron ore strip mine operation in the Botaderos forest reserve, alleging it polluted the environment.

Days before he died, Lopez, 46, had called for the resignation of Tocoa's mayor, who was seen allegedly negotiating bribes with drug traffickers in a video tape in 2013.

The mayor, Adan Funez, insisted he had nothing to do with the death of Lopez, for whom the Inter-American Human Rights Commission had ordered special protective measures in 2023.

In an interview with AFP in 2021, Lopez discussed the risks he said environmental activists face in the poverty- and violence-stricken Central American country.

"If you start defending common interests in this country," he said, "you clash with major interests."

"If you leave home, you always have in mind that you do not know what might happen, if you are going to return," said Lopez.

According to the human rights group Global Witness, Honduras is one of the world's most dangerous countries for environmental activists.

A well-known Honduran activist named Berta Caceres was killed in 2016.