Brazil: rancher jailed for murder of Sister Dorothy Stang

Sr Dorothy Stang

A Brazilian man has been convicted of murdering American nun Sister Dorothy Stang in 2005. Vitalmiro Bastos Moura has been sent to prison for 30 years. he was originally given a 38 year sentence at his first trial in 2007. He was acquitted after a retrial in the the following year, but when it was discovered that he had bribed a witness, the court decided to keep him in prison.

Sister Dorothy, who belonged to the Congregation of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, worked for 30 years in Brazil. She was 73 when she was killed. She had been outspoken in her efforts on behalf of the poor and the environment, and had previously received death threats from loggers and land owners.

She was shot dead while walking along a muddy track in the town of Anapu in Para, a northern frontier state where loggers and ranchers have deforested huge tracts of rainforest. Two gunmen who admitted killing her said they had been obeying orders from Moura and another rancher.

Sister Rebecca Spires, a colleague of Sister Dorothy, told AP: "This conviction sends a strong message... that the impunity is ending."