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For Immediate
Release
RAIFRAN Das
Neves Sales GETS NEW TRIAL
On
Dec. 17, 2007, the desembargadores (judges about the judges) voted to nullify
the October 2007 re-trial of Raifran Das Neves Sales, one of the five men
accused of involvement in the murder of Sister Dorothy Stang. He will have a new
trial in 2008.
Three besides Raifran have
already been convicted and are serving sentences. The retrial of Vitalmiro
Bastos de Moura, a rancher convicted in the crime and given a sentence of thirty
years which was originally scheduled for the 25th of October has been
postponed until early 2008 due to a doctor’s excuse presented by his lawyer
who is sick.
Sisters Kathryne Webster
and Jane Dwyer, Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur who worked with Sister Dorothy
and continue in Anapu, PA, said: “We are grateful for the just outcome
of this trial, appreciative of the competent work of our lawyers and the State
Justice system and are confident that the retrial of Vitalmiro will produce the
same result. A priority for the Sisters of Notre Dame is also that
Regivaldo Pereira Galvão, accused as being the principal author and financer of
this heinous crime, will be brought to justice in the same manner in early
2008.”
Sister Dorothy was
murdered February 12, 2005, in the area of land called “Esperança” that has
been reserved as a Project of sustainable Development. The 73-year-old
sister stood with farmers as they defended themselves against the ranchers and
loggers who were evicting them from their land.
Sister Dorothy is among
the 776 people murdered for land-related reasons in the Brazilian state of Pará,
the location of much of the Amazon rainforest, over the past 30 years.
During the same three decades, three other authors of land-related murders in
Pará were convicted but not given jail terms.
“Dorothy’s legacy
continues’, said Sister Camilla Burns, the community’s international leader.
“The people with whom she lived and for whom she died, fortified by her
friendship, continue their work – and hers – for the protection of
vulnerable people and the vulnerable environment. Dorothy lives!”
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CONTACT:
Sister Joan Krimm, SNDdeN
513-679-8180
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