Officials: Teen girl gang-raped in Brazilian jail

updated 5:01 p.m. ET Nov. 24, 2007

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - Brazilian lawmakers announced an investigation into a state prison system Saturday after authorities said a teenage girl was locked up in an Amazon jail for weeks with 21 men who she said would only let her eat in return for sex.

The jailing of the 15-year-old on theft charges set off a national scandal over the treatment of women by Brazil’s justice system and failures by authorities in northern Para state, where separate jails for men and women do not exist in most towns.

The 15-year-old said she was required to have sex with at least two inmates, police spokesman Walrimar Santos said from Belem, at the mouth of the Amazon River, where the victim was transferred after nearly a month living with male inmates.

A congressional committee plans to visit the Amazon state of Para on Wednesday to investigate and recommend ways to improve treatment of women and youthful offenders, Congresswoman Luiza Erundina told Brazil’s government news agency.

Teen: Officials did nothing to help
By the girl’s account, officials did nothing to intervene — until the story erupted in the national media earlier this week and outraged Brazilians demanded her transfer. Federal authorities have now taken the girl into protective custody.

“Throwing a 15-year-old girl into a cell with 20 men was a heinous and intolerable act,” Brazilian Bar Association President Cezar Britto said in an interview. “It is a serious case of criminal negligence against women, who in Brazil continue to be victims of prejudice.”

Santos said the girl was not beaten or injured. But the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo, which said it had access to private testimony after her transfer from the jail, reported she was tortured with lit cigarettes on her fingers and bare feet to force her to have sex. Her cellmates cut her hair to make her look more like a boy and difficult to recognize, Estado said.

She said her only reprieve from obligatory sex was on Thursdays — when intimate visits were allowed — and things “calmed down,” Estado reported.

Police and human rights officials said the girl was out of touch in the Para state capital of Belem and would not speak to reporters. The Associated Press generally does not identify people who may have been victims of sexual assault.

Girl jailed after alleged theft
The girl was arrested Oct. 21 on accusations of breaking and entering a house and jailed with male inmates in Abaetetuba, a city of 78,000 outside Belem.

The scandal erupted when the case was reported to authorities on Nov. 14 by the city’s Guardian Council, which cares for minors. The girl reportedly revealed she was obliged to have sex with inmates in return for food and showed bruises and cigarette burns on her body.

She was transferred to a jail for women in Belem on Nov. 17, although police claim they requested her transfer earlier but were ignored.

Santos said most towns do not have separate jails for men and women in the sprawling, largely lawless state of Para, which covers about twice the area of France.

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