Belém, Brazil
Two Brazilian ranch hands were sentenced to long prison terms this week for the murder of American nun and rain forest activist Dorothy Stang. Raifran das Neves Sales claimed he shot Stang in self-defense on a jungle path when she reached into a bag for what he thought was a gun. But his co-defendant testified that Sales shot Stang six times as she held her Bible. Stang’s sister Margaret said the verdict was “just the beginning.” Three ranchers are accused of offering the killers $20,000 to murder Stang, who was trying to block them from expanding ranches and logging operations in the rain forest.
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