Brazilian farmer gets 18 years in jail in killing of U.S. nun

An Amazon farmer was sentenced to 18 years in prison for his role in the murder of an American nun, who he said was killed at the behest of two ranchers angered by her opposition to plans to log a disputed patch of rain forest.

Photo: Brazilian farmer gets 18 years in jail in killing of U.S. nun

Brazilian farmer gets 18 years in jail in killing of U.S. nun

A Brazilian judge sentenced Amair Feijoli da Cunha, 38, on Wednesday for his part in the killing of rain forest defender Dorothy Stang.

Stang was shot on a muddy stretch of road deep in the heart of the Amazon following a long-running dispute with ranchers over a patch of forest they wanted to log and then convert into pasture land. She wanted to have the land declared as a sustainable development reserve.

Feijoli told a jury he offered money to two men to shoot the 73-year-old nun on Feb. 12, 2005 at the behest of two ranchers, Vitalmiro Moura and Regivaldo Galvao. The ranchers have been charged with Stang's killing, but legal maneuvering has kept their cases from coming to trial.

The sentencing capped a daylong trial in which jury members rejected defense claims that Feijoli was forced to hire the gunmen by the ranchers who threatened his life and to whom he owed money.

"We couldn't ask for anything better," said David Stang, the victim's brother, who traveled from his home near Colorado Springs to attend the trial.

He called the sentence "an important piece," but said he still wanted the ranchers' cases to be decided quickly and for them to be held in jail until they face a jury.

David Stang, 63, was joined by his sisters Marguerite Hohm, 73, and Mary Heil, 77.

Born in Dayton, Ohio, Stang spent the last 23 years of her life in the remote jungle town of Anapu, some 2,000 kilometers (1,250 miles) north of Rio de Janeiro, where she defended the rain forest and poor settlers who lived there.

Her killing evoked comparisons with rain-forest defender Chico Mendes, who was shot in 1988 in the western Amazon state of Acre.

Feijoli testified that Galvao told him: "Until we put an end to this woman, we won't have peace on these lands."

He said Galvao told him to offer US$24,000 ( Ђ 19,316) to kill Stang. Feijoli said Moura supplied the .38 caliber revolver used in the killing, reports the AP.

I.L.