Brazil temporarily frees US nun's killers

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Miami Herald

Posted on Thu, Aug. 07, 2008
Brazil temporarily frees US nun's killers
By MICHAEL ASTOR

Two men convicted in the 2005 killing of American nun and rainforest defender Dorothy Stang will be allowed to spend Brazilian Fathers' day at home, court officials said Thursday.
A judge ordered Clodaldo Batista and Amair Feijoli da Cunha freed for five days to spend the Sunday holiday with their families.

Each man is serving 17 years for the killing of Stang, a Dayton, Ohio, native who spent 30 years in the Amazon working to preserve the rainforest and teach the poor to demand their rights against powerful logging and ranching interests.

"In Brazil, this is very common for prisoners who have met a set of requirements," court spokesman Linomar Bahia said in a telephone interview from Belem, the capital of the Amazon state of Para. "The number of prisoners who don't return from these releases is almost insignificant."



Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/AP/story/632898.html

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http://marianist.com.nyud.net:8090/nlimages/stang-dorothy-v5-02.jpg http://askansnd.org.nyud.net:8090/images/Dot%20Stang%20Presente%20copy.jpg

[WriteDown]

1. GOT.....TO.....BE....KIDDING! n/t

[nomorenomore08]

2. How common is this, really?

Does the fact that they killed a "foreigner" (and one standing in the way of corporate interests at that) have something to do with more lenient treatment?

[WhiteTara]

3. Dorothy Strang doesn't get any holidays

they killed her. It is news like this that makes me so depressed.