Luana Lourenço Reporter Agência Brasil

Brasília – Today, September 6, a state court in Pará (“tribunal de Justiça do Pará”) will judge a motion to annul a decision by a jury that found landowner, Regivaldo Pereira Galvão, aka Taradão, but usually called Galvão, guilty of being one of the men who ordered the murder of the American missionary (who was a naturalized Brazilian), Dorothy Stang, in 2005. The jury (“2ª Vara do Tribunal do Júri de Belém”) sentenced Galvão to 30 years in prison in April 2010.

It is one of the peculiarities of the Brazilian judicial system that Galvão, tried, found guilty and sentenced, is able to appeal in liberty (“liberdade provisória”).

Four other men are behind bars for the crime: Vitalmiro Bastos de Moura, aka Bida, sentenced to 30 years; Rayfran das Neves, aka Fogoió, 27 years; Clodoaldo Batista, aka Eduardo, 17 years; and Amair Feijoli, aka Tato, 27 years.

The family of Dorothy Stang and the sisters of the congregation of nuns known as Notre Dame de Namur, have released a note saying they feel certain the conviction and sentence of Galvão will be upheld. “He (Galvão) has been condemned because he sentenced Dorothy to death, he promised a reward for the deed, he organized the assassination in which a 73-year-old lady, who had lived in the Amazon for 39 years, was shot six times in cold blood,” says the note in part.

Dorothy Stang defended the environment and the rights of small farmers in an area of intense land conflict known as Altamira in the state of Pará.

Allen Bennett – translator/editor The News in English

Link - Justiça julga amanhã recurso de fazendeiro condenado pela morte de missionária norte-americana