Rancher convicted of murder of American nun in Brazil

Published: 2007-05-15

SAO PAULO, Brazil (CNS) -- A Brazilian rancher was convicted May 15 of ordering the February 2005 assassination of U.S. Sister Dorothy Stang and sentenced to 30 years in prison. Vitalmiro Bastos de Moura, known in the Amazon region as Bida, said in court May 14 he did not know Sister Dorothy, a member of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, and only had contact with her two assassins after she was dead. He denied accusations that he paid the two men found guilty of killing the nun $25,000 to murder her. De Moura said Rayfran das Neves Sales and Clodoaldo Carlos Batista came to him after the crime and confessed the assassination. They were convicted of the crime in 2005. Judge Raymond Moises Alves Flexa sentenced Moura to 30 years in prison at the close of the two-day trial. De Moura's trial began May 14 in the northern city of Belem, in the state of Para. Sister Dorothy, a native of Dayton, Ohio, was 73 when she was murdered on an isolated road near the town of Anapu. She had lived in Brazil for nearly four decades and was known in the region as a fierce defender of a sustainable development project for the Amazon forest.

Copyright (c) 2007 Catholic News Service /U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service .