Belem, Brazil – A Brazilian rancher was convicted Tuesday of ordering the killing of an American nun and rain-forest defender in a case seen as an important test of justice in the largely lawless Amazon region. A judge sentenced him to 30 years in prison.
Vitalmiro Bastos de Moura “showed a violent personality unsuited to living in society,” the judge said in sentencing him to the maximum penalty for the 2005 slaying of 73-year-old Dorothy Stang.
The “killing was carried out in a violent and cowardly manner,” Judge Raymond Moises Alves Flexa said.
Stang’s brother David, who flew to Brazil for the two-day trial, trembled and wept after the verdict. “Justice was done,” he said, adding that he now believed another rancher also accused of ordering his sister’s killing may be convicted when he goes to trial later this year.
Stang, a naturalized Brazilian originally from Dayton, Ohio, helped build schools and was among the activists who worked to defend the rights of impoverished and exploited farmers drawn to the Amazon region. She also attempted to halt the rampant jungle clearing by loggers and ranchers that has destroyed about 20 percent of the forest cover.
Tuesday’s verdict came after three other men convicted in connection with the killing – a gunman, his accomplice and a go-between – recanted earlier testimony that Moura had offered them $25,000 to kill Stang in a conflict over land he wanted to log and develop.
