Assassin of Chico Mendes Given Right to Semi-Open Prison Sentence
5/22/99
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Title: Assassin of Chico Mendes Given Right to Semi-Open Prison
Sentence
Source: Folha de Sao Paulo
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: May 22, 1999
After three years of being recaptured by the Federal Police, Darly
Alves da Silva, the landowner who ordered his son to shoot Chico
Mendes, had his sentenced reduced to a semi-open prison sentence. He
will only have to spend his nights in the prison as soon as he
secures employment with the help of the prison system. The judge,
Everardo Ribeiro, commuted the sentence because da Silva has
completed a sixth of his prison sentence, and had a right to have his
sentence commuted.
Prosecutors argued that his lost that right when he escaped prison,
but the judge did not concur.
Chico Mendes was the head of a rubber-tappers union who gained world-
wide attention in his struggle to save the trees of the rainforest.