Brazil man accused of nun murder in court for retrial

[dipsydoodle]

The Brazilian rancher accused of plotting to murder US nun Dorothy Stang in 2005 in the Amazon is to appear in court for a retrial on Monday.

Vitalmiro Bastos Moura was sentenced to 38 years in jail in a first trial in 2007, acquitted on retrial in 2008 and is now going to court for a third time.

Suspicions he had bribed a witness to change his testimony led the court to keep him in prison till his appearance.

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The two confessed hitmen who killed her said Mr Moura paid them to do it, and prosecutors believe they will get a guilty verdict again, the BBC's Paulo Cabral reports from Sao Paulo.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8615057.stm

[Judi Lynn]

1. Brazil rancher goes on trial for US nun's murder

Brazil rancher goes on trial for US nun's murder
The Associated Press
Monday, April 12, 2010; 10:39 AM

RIO DE JANEIRO -- A rancher accused of ordering the murder of U.S. nun and Amazon defender Dorothy Stang is back on trial in northern Brazil.

Jurors have begun hearing testimony in the jungle city of Belem after a new defense request for a delay was denied.

Stang was a Dayton, Ohio native who worked for three decades to preserve the rain forest and defend poor settlers' land rights.

Prosecutors allege that Vitalmiro Moura ordered her killing in 2005 because she blocked him and another rancher from taking over land the government gave to farmers. His trial began Monday.

Moura was previously convicted of the murder and then acquitted in an automatic retrial. That was overturned last year on a technicality, however.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/12/AR2010041201718.html

Article New York Times, 2005:

By LARRY ROHTER
Published: February 14, 2005

RIO DE JANEIRO, Feb. 13 - An American nun and environmental activist was shot to death in the Amazon jungle on Saturday, heightening tensions between land speculators and peasant settlers in the region and bringing a government pledge to crack down on lawlessness.

The nun, Sister Dorothy Stang, 74, was shot four times in the chest and head by a pair of gunmen while visiting a remote rural encampment near the Trans-Amazon Highway in Pará State. She was renowned throughout the Amazon region for her work with the poor and landless and for her efforts to preserve the rain forest.

Officials view the attack as a challenge to the authority of the government, which has faced resistance from loggers and land speculators in the region over new land-use and ownership regulations.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/14/international/americas/14brazil.html

http://marianist.com.nyud.net:8090/nlimages/stang-dorothy-v5-02.jpg http://graphics8.nytimes.com.nyud.net:8090/images/2005/02/13/international/brazil.184.1.jpg http://www.pco.org.br.nyud.net:8090/banco_arquivos/conoticias/imagens/13894.jpg http://www.edlc.org.nyud.net:8090/wp-content/uploads/stang2b-200x144.jpg http://www.xaviermissionaries.org.nyud.net:8090/M_Life/NL_Archives/NL_Photos/Bra_SrStangDor8a.jpg

Dorothy Stang, alive, murdered, her friends

http://www.clickpb.com.br.nyud.net:8090/artigos/sendtmp/20080507072446/destaque/ww.jpg http://www.correiobraziliense.com.br.nyud.net:8090/files/app/noticia182/2009/12/10/160189/20091210165157250087o.jpg

Vitalmiro Moura

[flamingdem]

2. There is a new highly regarded documentary on this nt

[dipsydoodle]

3. Update - Brazil man jailed for murdering nun Dorothy Stang

A Brazilian rancher has been convicted of murdering US nun Dorothy Stang in 2005 and jailed for 30 years, at his third trial over the case. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8616877.stm

[Judi Lynn]

4. Hard to believe they've FINALLY done the right thing. Thank goodness.

Couldn't have been a more just finding, unless his sentence could have been LONGER.

What a hateful, worthless pretension of a man. His greed brought him down. Hope there will be NOTHING his lawyers can do to appeal this verdict.