Alessandra Bastos
Reporter - Agência Brasil

Brasília - The next trial involving individuals accused of the murder of US-born missionary, Dorothy Stang, is scheduled for two months from now. In December, 2005, the confessed killer, Rayfran das Neves, was sentenced to 27 years in prison, and his accomplice, Clodoaldo Batista, received an 18-year sentence.

The other three individuals accused of participation in the crime are under preventive detention. The alleged go-between, Amair Feijoli da Cunha ("Tato") will be tried in April. The delay is due to the transfer of the case from the bailiwick of Pacajá to Belém. "We are awaiting the transfer so we can bring the middleman before the jury," explains Pará state prosecutor, Lauro Freitas.

The trials that are most eagerly awaited, involving the authors of the crime, are expected to be held by the end of this semester. The case against the two landowners, Vatalmiro Bastos de Moura ("Bida") and Regivaldo Galvão, is currently in the hands of the Pará state supreme court, awaiting decisions on appeals before being submitted to trial by jury.

On Sunday (12), the environmental organization, Greenpeace, and local communities held demonstrations in Anapu and other Pará municipalities to remember the first anniversary of Stang's death and her struggle on behalf of agrarian reform and to demand improvements in the living conditions of the poorest part of the population in the Amazon region.

Translation: David Silberstein