Accused Mastermind of Nun-Slaying Acquitted

Accused Mastermind of Nun-Slaying Acquitted

Brazilian Set Free After 2nd Trial

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil, MAY 9, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Human rights groups decried the acquittal of a man accused of masterminding the 2005 murder of a U.S. nun in the Amazon.

On Tuesday, a jury in Belem, in Para State, acquitted Vitalmiro Bastos de Moura of conspiracy in the murder of Sister Dorothy Stang in February 2005.

The trial was the second in which a jury had considered Bastos de Moura's role in the killing. He was convicted and sentenced in May last year to 30 years in prison on charges of ordering the killing of Sister Stang, 73.

Under Brazilian law, a retrial is required for first offenders who are sentenced to more than 20 years. This time, the jury voted 5-2 to accept the defense contentions that Bastos de Moura had no motive and that the slaying had been carried out solely by Rayfran das Neves Sales, who confessed to shooting her and is serving a 28-year sentence.

The trials of suspects in her killing have been seen as tests of Brazil's willingness to prosecute murders over land use on the violent and largely lawless Amazon frontier.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva vowed in 2005 that his government would "not rest until the killers are caught." Brazil's Supreme Court once considered a motion to have the killing declared a federal crime, which would have taken the case out of Para's courts.

As many as 800 settlers, union members and priests have been killed in Para in disputes over land in the last 30 years, according to the Church's Land Pastoral, which monitors land violence in Brazil.

Prosecutors said das Neves Sales was offered as much as $25,000 to kill the nun after she fought to preserve a piece of jungle that ranchers wanted to clear for logging and cattle ranching.

He said in court that he had acted alone and in self-defense, contradicting previous testimony in which he said he had used Bastos de Moura's gun, said Gloria Lima, a court spokeswoman.

After the verdict on Tuesday, Judge Moises Flexa ordered Bastos de Moura released. He had been in jail since 2005.