Acquitted Brazilian rancher says he admired US nun

On Thursday, Moura acknowledged paying that sum to Cunha, but said it was to cover the earlier purchase of cattle.

According to Moura, Cunha changed his testimony because he had recently found God and wanted to right his wrongs. Cunha only testified against him in the first trial because he was pressured by police and prosecutors, he added.

Moura blamed Roman Catholic activists who work with the region's poor for pressuring prosecutors to blame someone beside confessed gunman Rayfran das Neves Sales.

"They want me to pay for all the crimes in Para state. Now that I'm acquitted, they have no one else," Moura said.

The southern state of Para, where Stang was gunned down with six, close-range shots from a revolver, is notorious for land-related violence, contract killings, slave-like labor conditions and wanton environmental destruction.

Meanwhile, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva noted public dissatisfaction with this week's acquittal.

"A part of society has started to have doubts about this judgment," Silva told judges during a ceremony at Brazil's second highest court on Thursday.

None of this appeared to fluster Moura, a tall rancher with a thick mop of black hair, who said he was just happy that "justice had been done" and he was free after three years in prison.