Frei Anastacio Ribeiro, a Franciscan priest and prominent land reform campaigner in the northeastern state of Paraiba, has been sentenced to four years and ten months’ imprisonment. If he is imprisoned, Amnesty International will consider him to be a prisoner of conscience. The sentence relates to charges brought against him in November 1995 in connection with his activities in campaigning for land reform, and was pronounced in his absence on 7 August 1996.
