Mastermind of US nun's murder convicted in Brazil

 

 

 

Rio de Janeiro,  A Brazilian court has awarded a 30-year sentence to a man for being reponsible for the murder of US nun and environmental activist Dorothy Stang.

 

 

 Stang, 73, spent three decades trying to preserve the rainforest and defend the rights of poor settlers who confronted powerful ranchers seeking their lands in the Amazon's wild frontier. She was shot six times at point-blank range Feb 12, 2005.  

 

 The verdict was announced Thursday night by Judge Raimundo Moises Alves Flexa in the northern Brazilian state of Para, following the fourth trial of land baron Vitalmiro Bastos de Moura for the nearly nine-year-old crime.

 

 Moura had ordered Stang's murder in association with another big landowner, Regivaldo Pereira Galvão, who was sentenced in 2012 to 30 years behind bars.

IANS