Two members of a Brazilian gang have been sentenced to 49 years each in prison for kidnapping and repeatedly raping an American woman on a minibus in Rio de Janeiro,
the BBC reported.
Driver Jonathan Froudakis de Souza, 20, and conductor Walace Aparecido de Souza Silva, 21, were sentenced for robbery, extortion, and rape.
The gang abducted the American woman after she boarded the bus in the Copacabana area of Rio in March. She was raped in front of her boyfriend, a French citizen.
Another gang member, Carlos Armando Costa dos Santos, 21, received a 21-year sentence, while a 14-year-old juvenile suspect accused of rape and robbery has yet to be tried.
Rio de Janeiro Judge Guilherme Schilling Pollo Duarte said the gang had been operating in the area for months, targeting foreign tourists for the most part, according to the BBC..
The victim “was humiliated, suffering brutally at the hands of her kidnappers,” Judge Pollo Duarte said.
The couple boarded the minibus in Rio March 30 as it headed for Lapa, a popular nightspot in Rio’s old city center. A few minutes later, the gang robbed six other passengers on the minibus and forced them off.
They ordered the woman and her boyfriend to stay. The boyfriend was handcuffed and beaten and had his nose broken, while the driver, conductor and another gang member took turns raping her as the bus was driven around the city.
The couple were dumped in a nearby town after being forced to withdraw money from cash machines and use their credit cards to purchase goods.
“It is difficult to believe that all such acts were perpetrated by human beings,” the judge said.
The incident raised security concerns ahead of next year's football World Cup in Brazil and the 2016 Olympics, which the city will host.
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