Brazil: Rancher’s retrial begins for murder of US nun, Amazon defender Dorothy Stang

Brazil rancher goes on trial for US nun’s murder

RIO DE JANEIRO — A rancher accused of ordering the murder of U.S. nun and Amazon defender Dorothy Stang is back on trial in northern Brazil.

Jurors have begun hearing testimony in the jungle city of Belem after a new defense request for a delay was denied.

Stang was a Dayton, Ohio native who worked for three decades to preserve the rain forest and defend poor settlers’ land rights.

Prosecutors allege that Vitalmiro Moura ordered her killing in 2005 because she blocked him and another rancher from taking over land the government gave to farmers. His trial began Monday.

Moura was previously convicted of the murder and then acquitted in an automatic retrial. That was overturned last year on a technicality, however.