Dorothy Stang’s murderer is moved from prison to house arrest

Criado em 05/07/13 12h34 e atualizado em 05/07/13 13h18
Por Thais Leitão Edição:s Fonte:Agencia Brasil

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Brasilia – Rayfran das Neves Sales, who has been tried, convicted and sentenced to 27 years in jail for being the gunman in the murder of the American missionary, Dorothy Stang, has become eligible to be moved from prison to house arrest under a Brazilian legal procedure known as “progressão do regime,” which allows a sentence to be alleviated over time. Rayfran’s lawyer, Raimundo Cavalcante, reports that his client left the penitentiary on Tuesday, July 2, after serving 8 years and eight months – that is, a sixth of his sentence. Under the “progressão do regime” rule, Rayfran now remains in house arrest, but can go out with some restrictions, such as not being able to go to nightclubs and similar places. He also has to be home by 10:00 pm, must find a job within 60 days and is supposed to present himself before legal authorities every month (make mandatory visits to a day reporting center). In a note, a Pará state court explained that Rayfran was given the right to be moved from prison to house arrest because he had good behavior, worked in prison and was studying [there is no “progressive alleviation” of a jail sentence in American law (going from incarceration to overnight stays in jail ("regime semiaberto") to house arrest, for example, as there is in Brazilian jurisprudence) although a jail term in the US can be shortened by participating in a work program and/or good behavior and parole or probation could, with a little strectch of the imagination, be seen as similar to "regime semiaberto"]

A lawyer from the social activist group that is linked to the Catholic Church, Pastoral da Terra (“CPT”), José Batista, attacked the decision. He says house arrest is a benefit that raises fears of impunity. He claims that with Rayfran out of jail all social activists and members and leaders of organizations working for social justice are under threat. The CPT lawyer made it clear that anyone connected to human rights in the state of Pará was not safe if Rayfran was not in prison.

“We have a case here where a confessed murderer, who committed such a heinous crime, spends just a little time behind bars. It scares all of us and raises the specter of impunity. As a result, criminals will not feel intimidated and it increases the risk that people fighting for social justice face – especially in the struggle for land rights,” declared the lawyer.

The CPT says that during the last four decades over 800 rural workers and union leaders in the land reform movement have been killed in Brazil. “As if that is not bad enough, only 10% of these cases ever went to trial. And then, very few of the gunmen or the masterminds in these cases were found guilty. Most of them just disappear and are never even arrested. If someone does go to jail they get out because of some benefit and then they run away,” says a spokesperson for the CPT.

Dorothy Stang, 73, an American nun who was a naturalized Brazilian, worked with landless rural workers in their struggle to obtain land and protect natural resources from exploitation by rapacious land owners. At the time of her death on February 12, 2005, she was a leader of a sustainable development project (“ Projeto de Desenvolvimento Sustentavel Esperança”) that was opposed to by local land owners who claimed the project land belonged to them. She was shot seven times on a rural road in the town of Anapu, state of Pará.

Courtroom proceedings found the following: Rayfran das Neves was the man who gunned Dorothy Stang down, with the aid of Clodoaldo Carlos Batista. The two had received orders (and $22,000) to kill the missionary from landowners/farmers Amair Feijoli da Cunha, Vitalmiro Bastos de Moura (aka Bida) and Regivaldo Pereira Galvão.

The man accused of being the principal mastermind of the crime, Bida (Vitalmiro Bastos de Moura), has gone to trial twice. Both times he was sentenced to 30 years in jail. But both times he has managed to remain out of jail most of the time as he appeals his case. He is currently scheduled to be tired again in a Pará state court.

Editors: Nadia Franco /Olga Bardawil
Translators: Mayra Borges / Fabricio Ferreira / Allen Bennett