Brazilian nun "shot in self-defence"

[WillJ]

I had a hard time believing this was for real at first. And that it didn't happen in Texas.

Brazil nun 'shot in self-defence'
Suspects in killing of nun
Rayfran Sales (left) and Clodoaldo Batista are accused of the murder
One of two men accused over the murder of a US-born nun in Brazil has said he shot her in self-defence, contradicting earlier statements he made to police.

Rayfran Sales said he thought Dorothy Stang was pulling a gun from her bag, when she instead reached for a Bible.

Mr Sales and another man went on trial on Friday for allegedly killing the nun on the orders of ranchers with whom she was quarrelling over Amazonian land.

Sister Dorothy had fought for peasant farmers' right to own land in the area.

The 73-year-old activist's body was found on a dirt track in a remote part of Para state earlier this year.

Her death galvanized the Brazilian government to send thousands of troops to the region in an effort to end illegal logging and forest clearance.

Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has promised to bring the nun's killers to justice and to end what he has described as a culture of "impunity" surrounding land disputes in the Amazon.

Contradictory testimony

Mr Sales told a court in the northern Brazilian city of Belem that he shot Sister Dorothy because he feared she had a gun in her bag.

Dorothy Stang
Dorothy Stang spent decades defending Para's peasant farmers

He told the court she reached into her bag with the words: "The weapon I have is this".

Instead of a gun, however, he said she produced a Bible.

Mr Sales' co-accused, Clodoaldo Batista, is said to have encouraged him.

The court heard that in earlier testimony to the police, both men had spoken of an execution-type killing, in which Sister Dorothy was shot several times at close range as she read from a Bible.

Contradicting this in court on Friday, Mr Sales said he had acted impulsively in self-defence.

He also said one of three men alleged to have ordered the killing was not involved.

Campaigning nun

The three men, two of them ranchers, are in custody awaiting trial next year on charges of paying and arranging for the killing.

Many landowners in the area have openly argued that Sister Dorothy's murder was in legitimate defence of property.

Hundreds of the nun's supporters have travelled to the city of Belem for the trial, being held amid tight security.

The campaigning nun was a thorn in the side of the region's most powerful political and economic interests, reports the BBC's Tom Gibb, often denouncing illegal logging and forest clearance and multi-million dollar corruption by local politicians.

She pushed for land to be granted to landless peasants as an environmentally-friendly alternative to large-scale ranching and logging.

Environmentalists and activists say they operate in fear of their lives in many parts of the Amazon region where landowners' militias still hold sway.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4513874.stm

 

[Sparta]

Nemo me impune proselytize?

Edit:

 

[MjM]

Horrible. Just very wrong.

 

[luiz]

The murder was ordered by local crime bosses, but the murderers can't name them or they die. And I never heard anyone openly support her murder.

Anyway, at least the murderers will get convicted, since the media is all over the case. Hopefully they will identify who ordered the crime as well.

 

[Zoso318]

Wow.....just ****ing wow......

 

[Stylesjl]

Ouch! I clicked the link thinking oh yeah another april fools prank and then i find out it was real

 

[Volum]

Well, maybe she was about to throw the bible, it is a pretty heavy book after all......

 

[Slaughter]

That's pretty a tragedy. These old northeastern style colonels think they can arrive here at the north, slave people, chopp trees on Union areas, burn then and get some bulls and all... Worse of it all? I live at Pará (It PARÁ, not "para". You english speakers should use ABNT 2 like us) and I tired at seeing this farwest style no-man land in the west... This is a caos... and the MST is giving us problems in the south... Kill then all i say...

 

[general_kill]

She died for what she believed in. A life well lived. Hope she rests in peace.

 

[FredLC]

On a more technical note, it's interesting, in a funny way, that they are claiming "legitimate defense"... not only for the claim being so obviously bogus, but because this does not fit the countours of legitimate defense... because even assuming that she had a gun and reached for her purse (wheter to take it or not), still, they would have to come up with a convincing reason that they had cause to believe that she wanted to shoot them - something that they are not doing as far as I know of the story.

Obviously, these henchman were not paid enough to hire good lawyers. The only smart move they could do now to easy their future life is to ask for "collaborator" status and to be transfered to other region, and there, in safety, denounce their bosses. All regular "I didn't do it" tactic is worth squat...

Other than that, I expect 25 to 30 years of jail to them.

Regards .

 

[Dreadnought]

Who would do that? I can't believe this. People these days are screwed up

 

[willemvanoranje]

I remember this.. I was in Curitiba on exchange when it happened. Of course people get killed every single day in Brazil (and any other country in the world), but this one was of a different order. Awful! And I'm very happy these men are finally brought to justice, although they probably are just 'the messengers' in this.. no doubt they're trying to get the entire syndicate though.

 

[Lozzy_Ozzy]

Who would do that? I can't believe this. People these days are screwed up

People have always been screwed up.