The Pará Civil Police took into custody farmer Regivaldo Pereira Galvão, who was condemned for ordering the killing of Dorothy Stang, a Catholic missionary and agrarian reform militant. The crime occurred in a rural settlement of the Anapu municipality (681 km from Belem) in 2005.
The Supreme Court ordered Regivaldo, known as ‘Taradão,’ to prison on February 19. He was condemned to 30 years in prison in April of 2010 but this was reduced to 25 years by the Superior Tribunal of Justice (STJ).
The farmer's arrest was carried out by the Xingu Regional Superintendent in Altamira on the same day that the warrant was issued by the Pará Court of Justice, by order of the STF.
The juridical imbroglio favored Regivaldo because there are disagreements about the legality of his arrest in the second instance. He was only able to stay free until now because in May of last year Minister Marco Aurélio Mello granted habeas corpus under the argument that the law did not allow arrest in case of a criminal action that did not have the final and unappealable decision.
Missionary Dorothy Stang was born on May 7, 1931, in the city of Dayton, Ohio. She became a Brazilian citizen and was involved in the struggle for the implementation of sustainable development projects in the Amazon region.
Translated by Kiratiana Freelon