An Afro-Brazilian religious leader has allegedly been murdered by his sons who first knocked him out with sleeping pills and then buried him alive.

The two brothers have been charged with chief of police of Timon, in Maranhao state, Brazil, Antonio Valente Filho, telling Globo TV’s G1 website that the pair – aged 18 and 21 – confessed this week.

They claimed that their father was a violent man who drank too much and didn’t accept their homosexuality.

Neither the suspects nor the victim were named.

The gay men had given their father a stronger dose than usual of his sleeping pills and buried him while he was unconscious.

The autopsy confirmed that the victim died underground of asphyxiation.

Filho said :”He really was buried alive. We are investigating the real motive for the crime.”

He said that police are investigating whether the victim’s role as head of a local Afro-Brazilian religious congregation may have been a motivation for the killing.

Filho said :”We believe they might have been fighting for control of the ceremonial grounds.

“We don’t think this was just over their fights regarding the sons’ sexual orientation.”

He also confirmed that after a neighbor told others about the grave they had dug together, the brothers confessed to an uncle.

He in turn had who called the police.