Rights group Human Rights Watch said the decision was a "landmark step for accountability in Brazil".

The charges will be brought against Colonel Sebastiao Curio Rodrigues de Moura, who commanded troops that carried out the kidnapping and torture of five members of the Araguaia guerrilla movement in the Amazon that was fighting to impose communism, federal prosecutors said in a statement.

The colonel, then a major and known simply as Curio, was a notorious and ruthless figure from the dictatorship which began after a military coup. He took over the running of the region in the Amazon where his troops were stationed and earned a fortune overseeing artisanal mining.