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Brazil outrage over jail gang-rape



Police say the girl was locked up in connection
with a robbery [AP]



A 15-year-old girl was put in a jail cell in Brazil with more than 20 men, and for one month was raped and forced to have sex for food, human rights groups have said.

"She was raped from day one" at the jail in Para state, a Children and Adolescent Defense Centre (Cedeca) spokeswoman said on Thursday.


The number of men in the cell varied from 20 to 34 while the girl was there, the spokeswoman said.

Miere Cohen, president of the Order of Brazilian Lawyers Human Rights Commission, said: "She was raped innumerable times and forced to exchange sexual relations for food."


Media reports of the case have sparked outrage across Brazil.

In another incident earlier this year, a 23-year-old woman was jailed for one month together with 70 men.

The teenager, whose identity was not disclosed, was arrested in Abaetetuba, 80 km from Para state's capital Belem, on October 21 on suspicion of robbery and put behind bars at a local police station until an anonymous caller tipped off the media.

"Nobody really knows what she was charged with," Cohen said.

"She was a suspect in a robbery but police were unable to tell us which robbery. There was no formal charge."

The girl's lawyers said that police at one point said they believed the suspect was not under-age.

But Ana Julia Carepa, the governor of Para, said: "Whether she was 15, 20, 50, 80 or 100 doesn't matter. A woman should not have been kept in a jail cell with men." She said she would hand out "exemplary punishment" in the case.

The Cedeca spokeswoman said the girl is distraught and very afraid, but said she's able to recognise the police officers who locked her up and the detainees who raped her.

"She's ready to talk," she said.