Reply #26: Brazil court confirms 27-year sentence for killer of US nun

[Judi Lynn]

Brazil court confirms 27-year sentence for killer of US nun
Posted Wed Oct 24, 2007 0:33am AEST

The murderer of a US nun who nettled powerful interests by campaigning to save the Amazon forest has had his 27-year prison sentence confirmed after a retrial by a Brazilian court.

Rayfran das Neves Sales was again found guilty by a jury in Belem, northern Brazil, of shooting dead Dorothy Stang, a 74-year-old missionary killed in February 2005 in the middle of the lush jungle region she fought to save.

"The jury unanimously voted to accept the prosecution's argument recognizing the defendant as the perpetrator of the missionary's murder," a court statement said after the one-day retrial.
(snip)

Over the past three decades, more than 1,000 poor rural workers in Brazil's Para state, covering much of the Amazon, have been murdered.

- AFP
http://abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/10/24/2068315.htm?section=world