Man Accused of Killing Nun Acquitted in Retrial

A Brazilian jury acquitted one of the ranchers accused of ordering the assassination of U.S. Sister Dorothy Stang in 2005. Vitalmiro Bastos de Moura was acquitted May 6 of ordering the killing of the 73—year—old nun.

Last year de Moura was sentenced to 30 years in prison for the crime, but under Brazilian law every defendant sentenced to more than 20 years has the right to appeal the decision and demand a new trial.

Part of the reason for the acquittal was that Rayfran das Neves Sales, Sister Dorothy's confessed killer, said during his retrial that he alone was responsible for the killing. Sales said he felt threatened by the missionary and mistook her Bible for a gun.

In earlier depositions, Sales had accused de Moura of ordering Sister Dorothy's killing. After the de Moura verdict was announced, commotion broke out on the steps of the court building, with Sister Dorothy's supporters protesting the decision. Sister Dorothy had lived in the Amazon for 40 years. She worked closely with the Brazilian bishops' Pastoral Land Commission, which said she had been receiving death threats due to her work with rural workers.

A May 7 statement from the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, Sister Dorothy's order, said that she "stood with farmers as they defended themselves against the ranchers and loggers who were evicting them from their land." —CNS

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