Prosecutors had sought up to 36 years in prison for the former rebels of the leftist Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front.
But the judges acquitted them "due to the statute of limitations" and ordered their immediate release, defense lawyer Carolina Herrador told AFP after the hearing in the city of Sensuntepeque.
The court upheld arrest warrants for two other fugitive suspects, Herrador said.
Prosecutors accused the eight former guerrillas of killing a woman in 1989 because they suspected she was an army informant.
The five environmentalists campaigned for a ban on metal mining that was introduced in 2017 but which activists fear President Nayib Bukele wants to reverse.
"We never had any doubt about our innocence. Today we have come out with our heads held high. We were not mistaken about our innocence," Pedro Rivas, one of the environmentalists, told AFP.
Supporters outside the court shouted "freedom!" and greeted the activists with hugs.
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders and other experts expressed concern in a letter to Bukele's government after the 2023 arrests that the case was an attempt to intimidate environmentalists.
The activists' supporters argued that the speed of the trial contrasted with the lack of an investigation into massacres the military is accused of carrying out during the 1980-1992 civil war.
The case was motivated by "powerful political and economic interests" targeting opponents of mining, David Morales, of the non-governmental organization Cristosal, told AFP.
Colombian leader 'nervous' about threats to UN nature talks in Cali
Bogota (AFP) Oct 18, 2024 -
Colombian President Gustavo Petro said Friday he was "nervous" about threats to the UN biodiversity meeting his country will host in the city of Cali from Monday.
Cali is on high alert after Colombia's EMC rebel group -- a splinter of the FARC guerrilla army that disbanded in 2017 -- warned foreign delegations to stay away.
The threat came after EMC fighters were targeted by military raids in the southwest Cauca department, where the group is said by the state to engage in drug trafficking and illegal mining.
Cali is the closest big city to EMC-controlled territory.
"We are all nervous (hoping) that nothing bad happens because it is the biggest international event that Colombia has hosted," Petro told W Radio. He had previously insisted that security for the so-called COP16 was "guaranteed."
"There are those who would like it (the meeting) to be a showcase of violence and death. And there are those who we want to be the showcase of the most beautiful thing in Colombia," said the leftist leader.
Some 11,000 Colombian police and soldiers, aided by UN and US security personnel, have been deployed to secure the event, which runs to November 1.
Themed "Peace with Nature," it has the urgent task of coming up with monitoring and funding mechanisms to ensure that 23 UN targets agreed in 2022 to "halt and reverse" species destruction can be met by 2030.
Host Colombia is one of the most biodiverse in the world, and Petro has made environmental protection a priority.
But the country has struggled to extricate itself from six decades of armed conflict between leftist guerrillas such as the EMC, right-wing paramilitaries, drug gangs, and the state.
A report Friday from the International Crisis Group said the EMC's continued control over parts of the Colombian Amazon "has further jeopardized the health of a forest that plays a crucial role in the planet's climate."
As peace talks between the government and EMC have stumbled, "deforestation rates have shot up" in areas where the group had previously curbed forest razing as a gesture of good will, it said.
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