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May
21, 2007 
VOL.
45, NO. 10Oakland,
CA
Brazilian rancher guilty of plotting U.S. nun’s murder
SAO PAULO,
Brazil (CNS) -- A Brazilian rancher convicted of masterminding the February
2005 assassination of U.S. Sister Dorothy Stang, a member of the Sisters
of Notre Dame de Namur, was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
As more than 800 rural workers celebrated the verdict outside the court
building in Belem May 15, Vitalmiro Bastos de Moura was led away in handcuffs.
Some of the workers had traveled hundreds of miles to the Para state capital,
camping in front of the courthouse for two days.
Prosecutors said 73-year-old Sister Dorothy -- a native of Dayton, Ohio,
and a naturalized Brazilian citizen -- was killed because of her project
on the sustainable development of the Amazon region, which bothered many
of the large landowners in the area. De Moura and Regivaldo Pereira Galvao
are landowners and were said to have offered $25,000 for her murder.
In Brazil those who are sentenced to more than 20 years for a crime have
the right to appeal, but Judge Raimundo Alves Flexa denied defense attorneys’
request that de Moura remain free while appealing the conviction.
Of the five men accused in Sister Dorothy’s murder, four have now
been convicted and are in jail. Galvao is awaiting trial.
Sister Dorothy attended a four-month sabbatical program in creation spirituality
at Oakland’s Holy Names University in 1992. Her sister Norma Stang
lives in Sacramento.
David Stang, Sister Dorothy’s brother who attended the trial, sent
a letter in early May to Para Gov. Ana Julia de Vasconcelos Carepa asking
for justice.
