Brazilian Faces Second Retrial Over Nun's Killing

A man who admitted killing the renowned rainforest campaigner Dorothy Stang is facing a second retrial after his conviction was quashed.

Stang's murder in February 2005 sparked international anger at ranchers in Brazil who were suspected of ordering the American nun's shooting.

Stang, 73, lived in the Amazon basin for over 20 years and campaigned against the destruction of the rainforest by loggers and cattle farmers.

In October, Rayfran das Neves Sales was convicted and sentenced to 27 years in prison for the killing.

But last night a panel of judges accepted Sales' appeal, arguing the trial judge did not allow the jury to consider Sales' claim that he acted on his own and killed Stang out of fear and rage, court spokeswoman Gloria Lima said.

Prosecutors say Sales, who has changed his testimony several times, is now trying to clear others suspected of involvement in the killing.

The annulment means that Sales will be retried in connection with the death, said Lima. No date has been set for the new trial

Sales was sentenced to 27 years in prison in December 2005 - a sentence upheld at his second trial in October. Brazil grants an automatic retrial for any sentence longer than 20 years.

Sales confessed to shooting Stang six times. Prosecutors say he was offered $25,000 (£12,400) to kill Stang, because of a dispute over a patch of rainforest.

Three other people have also been convicted in connection with the killing, while another defendant, rancher Regivaldo Galvao, has so far managed to avoid trial through legal manoeuvres before the country's supreme court.

A convicted rancher, Vitalmiro Bastos de Moura, was sentenced to 30 years in prison in May and is expected to be retried some time next year.

During the past three decades, 1,237 workers and activists have been killed in land disputes in the Amazon forest. Of those, 772 were in Para state, where Stang was killed.