A second suspect sought in the murder of a US-born nun who was an advocate for landless farmers was arrested late Sunday in the Brazilian state of Para, police said.
Rayfran das Neves Sales was captured about 20km from the town of Anapu after local residents recognized him from a photograph posted by police, police superindendent Pedro Monteiro told reporters.
Rayfran is the second suspect in the murder of Dorothy Stang, a 74-year-old missionary who spent decades working with the poor in Para state, arrested by Brazilian police.
Amair Feijole da Cunha, known by the nickname Tato, surrendered to authorities in the town of Altamira Saturday.
Tato was sought as a suspected go-between linking rancher Vitalmiro Bastos de Moura, "Bida," who was suspected of paying for a hit, and two men suspected of carrying out the crime, Eduardo and Rayfran das Neves Sales.
The hit men earned US$19,000 dollars in cash for the murder, according to the daily O Estado de Sao Paulo.
The man accused of hiring two gunmen to kill Stang was charged Sunday with conspiracy to murder, authorities said.
Amair Freijoli da Cunha, known as Tato, was charged after nearly three and a half hours of interrogation by Para state police in Altamira, police said.
Cunha turned himself in Saturday after arrest warrants were issued for him and three other suspects, the two purported gunmen and a rancher accused of ordering the killing of Stang.
Cunha, who was accompanied by a lawyer, denied any involvement in the crime, but police said he gave too many contradictory statements and is clearly connected with the other suspects. If convicted, he faces up to 30 years in prison.
Police investigator Waldir Freire said Cunha ``was lying the whole time,'' the official Agencia Brasil news agency said.
Also Sunday, witnesses told police that Cunha and Stang had an altercation a day before she was shot six times at the Boa Esperanca settlement near the rural town of Anapu, about 2,100km north of Rio de Janeiro.
Police said Stang, a naturalized Brazilian originally from Dayton, Ohio, wanted Cunha to leave the settlement, where she helped some 400 families survive in the jungle.
Cunha allegedly hired the gunmen on behalf of Vitamiro Goncalves Moura, a rancher known as Bida who is accused of ordering the killing.
Moura and the two gunmen were still at large, police said. State and federal officers and jungle troops in helicopters and pickup trucks were hunting for them in the largely lawless Amazon region where Stang was killed. After Stang's murder Feb. 12, the government sent 2,000 troops to the northern state in an effort to avert more violence.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in