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Nun Killers Convicted in Brazil

Two Brazilian men were convicted Saturday of killing an American nun who spent decades working as a human rights and environmental activist in the Amazon rain forest, in a trial many saw as a test of Brazil`s commitment to prosecuting land-related killings. Rayfran das Neves Sales and Clodoaldo Carlos Batista were found guilty of killing Dorothy Stang on February 12 in the heart of the Amazon rain forest.

In the past 20 years, violence has claimed the lives of 534 people. Before Saturday, only eight of the killers had been convicted. Prosecutor Esdon Cardoso said the case would be resolved only when three other suspects are convicted, including two ranchers accused of ordering the killing.

The seven-member jury sentenced Salas, who shot Stang six times with a .38 caliber revolver on a muddy road, to 27 years in prison. Batista, charged as an accomplice, was sentenced to 17 years. Stang, 73, was killed in Para state, a region notorious for corruption and violence against peasants.