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Accused
Killers of Ohio Sister of Notre Dame de Namur Dorothy Stang Retried in Brazil;
One
Sentence Upheld, One Reversed
Cincinnati
OH – May 7, 2008 – A presiding judge and jury of seven in Pará, Brazil last
night absolved Vitalmiro Bastos de
Moura of responsibility for the death of Sister of Notre Dame de Namur Dorothy
Stang. During the same
proceedings, Rayfran das Neves Sales was sentenced to 28 years in prison, with
no possibility of appeal.
In
2007 the two men were found guilty in the murder of Sister Dorothy and each was
sentenced to serve more than 20 years in jail. Both were retried because
Brazilian law permits automatic appeals when sentences are of this length.
Sister
Dorothy was a native of Dayton and belonged to the Ohio Province of the Sisters
of Notre Dame de Namur, which is headquartered in Cincinnati. She was gunned down in 2005 while walking along a dirt road
in Anapu, Pará, Brazil.
At
the time of her death, the Sister of Notre Dame de Namur was working with the
Project for Sustainable Development (PDS), a government initiative created
through Brazil's National Institute for Agrarian Reform (INCRA), which helps
landless families benefit from sustainable farming systems. The land was granted
to the peasant farmers by the government, but is highly coveted by powerful
ranchers.
The
area where Sister Dorothy was murdered, called “Esperança,” has since been
reserved as a project of sustainable development. The 73-year-old Sister of Notre Dame de Namur stood with
farmers as they defended themselves against the ranchers and loggers who were
evicting them from their land.
There
is the possibility that the prosecutor will appeal the jury’s decision
regarding rancher Vitalmiro Bastos de Moura’s role in the murder. Two other
men have already been convicted in Sister Dorothy’s death and are serving
sentences. A fifth man, Rancher
Regivaldo Pereira Galvão, has been accused as the principal architect and
co-financer of Sister Dorothy’s murder and awaits trial.
“As
Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, we grieve that, with Bida’s (Vitalmiro Bastos
de Moura) release, justice has again been thwarted,” said Sister Camilla
Burns, congregational leader. “Dorothy is our sister, so our grief is
personal. We also grieve for the many unknown murder victims of Anapu. In this
season of resurrection, we hope and we fervently pray that one day all people,
especially the people of Dorothy’s beloved Brazil, will be treated with the
reverence they are due as human beings.”
Sister
Dorothy is among the more than 800 people murdered over the past 30 years for
land-related reasons in the Brazilian state of Pará, the location of much of
the Amazon rainforest. During
the same three decades, only three others were convicted of land-related murders
in Pará, but none were given jail terms.
Ohio
Provincial Superior Sister Teresita Weind said of the court decision, “While
we are disappointed with the outcome of this trial, we know that this decision
will not end Sister Dorothy’s work for the peasant farmers and their families
in Brazil. Our Sister Dorothy loved
the people of Brazil. All she ever
wanted for them was dignity and the basic rights due children of God.
No court decision can change this or dim her legacy because Sister
Dorothy lives on in the hearts of her people.”
In
Brazil, Community Spokeswoman Sister Kathryne Webster who worked for many years
with Sister Dorothy said of the verdict, “We the Sisters of Notre Dame in
Brazil accept and are respectful of the justice process.
We are immensely disappointed with the exoneration of Vitlamiro Bastos de
Moura. We are committed to continue
to walk with our people in Anapu. They
have a right to live and be safe. We will work with the people and proper
authorities to make that happen.”
About
the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur
The
Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur are an international congregation founded in
Amiens, France in 1804. Today, 1,600 Sisters serve in 34 states throughout the
United
States
and in England, Belgium, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Congo-Kinshasa,
South Africa, Nicaragua, Peru and Brazil. Eighteen
Sisters are in Brazil.
The
Ohio Province, which is headquartered in Cincinnati, was established in 1840 and
is the first Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur community in the United States.
Sisters
of Notre Dame de Namur change lives by making known God’s goodness.
Throughout the world, we are committed to education and take a stand with
the poor, especially women and children in the most abandoned places. We
maintain an international web site at: www.sndden.org.
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CONTACT:
Sister Joan Krimm, SNDdeN
513-679-8180
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