Sunday, May 2, 2010

Second Brazil rancher jailed over US nun's murder

Second Brazil rancher jailed over US nun's murder

Dorothy Stang  in February 2004
Dorothy Stang was shot six times and left lying in the mud

A court in Brazil has convicted a second rancher for ordering the murder in 2005 of US nun and environmental activist Dorothy Stang.

Regivaldo Galvao was sentenced to 30 years in prison by the court in Belem.

Prosecutors said Galvao and his accomplice Vitalmiro Moura had hired gunmen to kill the 73-year-old nun.

Prosecutors said she was murdered because she had blocked Galvao and Moura from seizing land the government had given to Amazonian farmers.

Galvao's defence lawyers are still to decide whether to appeal.

Moura was also sentenced to 30 years in prison earlier this month.

The killing in Para state caused an outcry in Brazil and internationally.

Dorothy Stang had worked in the Amazon for 30 years to preserve the rainforest and protect the rights of rural workers against large-scale farmers to take their land.

She was shot dead as she walked along a muddy rainforest track in the town of Anapu in Para, a northern frontier state where loggers and ranchers have deforested huge tracts of rainforest.

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