Débora Zampier Reporter Agencia Brasil

Brasilia – A Supreme Court justice has suspended the trial (by jury) of a farmer/ landowner, José Délcio Barroso Nunes, who is accused of ordering the death of a union leader/activist, José Dutra da Costa, aka Dezinho, in November 2000.
The ruling, by justice Celso de Mello, also suspends the landowner’s incarceration and a penal process against him in Rondon do Pará, in the state of Pará, until such time as a final decision is reached on a habeas corpus request in the case.
Defense lawyers claim their client was denied due process (“cerceamento de defesa”) in a hearing on habeas corpus on April 23 at a lower court (“STJ”).
Dezinho was an activist who denounced farmer/landowners in the Rondon do Pará region for keeping workers in slave-labor situations and hiring gunmen. He was shot by Wellington Silva, a hired gunman whose confession led the police to Barroso Nunes. Even so, Barroso Nunes has spent the last ten years since the murder in liberty awaiting trial.
This is yet another land conflict case, similar to many others, for example, that of the American missionary nun, Dorothy Stang, who was also murdered on orders of landowners. Her death also occurred in the state of Pará, where it is not easy to put a farmer/landowner behind bars.
In October 2008, the Dezinho case was brought before the Inter-American Human Rights Commission (housed in the Organization of American States), which ruled that it seemed Brazilian authorities were dragging their feet and not trying to resolve the murder.

Allen Bennett – translator/editor The News in English
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