In December a grand jury declared Lima innocent due to a lack of evidence. Borges' trial was postponed, and no developments have been reported. Two military police officers who were also accused of participating in the death squad that killed Bispo were arrested, but no further developments were reported in their cases.
There were numerous killings of indigenous people, mostly related to land disputes see section 5 , and of rural activists and labor union organizers see section 6. AI and other credible sources indicated that these killings often occurred either with the participation, knowledge, or acquiescence of state law enforcement officials. On April 5, federal police arrested former military police lieutenant colonel Wasdir Coppetti Neves and five other military police officers for creating a paramilitary group to target landless rural workers in Parana State.
On June 9, legal proceedings began in federal court against 19 persons suspected of being involved with the paramilitary group. From January to August, 27 rural workers were victims of attempted killings, received death threats, 2 were reportedly tortured, 52 were physically assaulted, were imprisoned, and 80 were wounded in land conflicts involving , people. The Ombudsman's Office of the Ministry of Agrarian Development reported 66 rural killings 12 as a direct result of land conflict, 34 not directly caused by land conflict, and 20 still under investigation between January 1 and October Stang had received a number of death threats in recent years and met with federal authorities to complain about recent threats against her and her colleagues during the week of her death.
Stang worked with landless peasants and supported efforts of the government's National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform to place the landless on unused and underutilized land. After an investigation, the state civil police recommended indictments against five suspects, who were arrested and awaited trial.
In June the government announced that the suspects would be tried at the state, not federal, level despite requests from Stang's family and the prosecutor general that the case be federalized due to possible corruption in Para State's judicial process. Three suspects appealed to the Para State Court of Justice and won't be tried until the appeal is considered. Two others were convicted and sentenced on December 9: Rayfran das Neves Sales was sentenced to 27 years and Clodoaldo Carlos Batista to 17 years in prison.
