Documentary record Bound by Fear
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Conviction Afro-Brazilian religious settings Hortolândia, São Paulo, Brazil · 2024

Brazil: pai de santo convicted over thirteen victims — court finds systematic use of his religious influence

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

pai de santo of an umbanda terreiro in Hortolândia

Organization

No organization assigned

Spiritual nexus

CORE, in the court's own words: the judgment names the systematic use of his power of influence as pai de santo as the mechanism. Every victim was a follower of his terreiro.

  • Guru or spiritual-teacher authority
  • Ritual, oath, or initiation

Evidence structure

Proceedings

  1. 2024-09-01 · conviction and sentence; prosecution appeal pending

    1ª Vara Criminal de Hortolândia, São Paulo (Juiz André Forato Anhe). Eduardo Santana, known as Pai Du, pai de santo of an umbanda terreiro in Hortolândia, was convicted in September 2024 of rape, sexual violation by fraud, sexual importuning, sexual harassment and injury against thirteen victims — all followers of his terreiro — between 2020 and 2023, and sentenced to sixteen years, three months and seventeen days in closed regime plus a further term in semi-open regime. The judgment expressly found systematic use of his 'power of influence as pai de santo'. The prosecution has appealed seeking additional convictions and a higher sentence.

Appellate history

  1. Date in cited record · undefined

    undefined

Documented coercion mechanisms

  • the court's express finding of systematic use of his 'power of influence as pai de santo'
  • sexual violation by fraud within the terreiro's religious framework

Primary record

Sources

official prosecutor release verdict and sentencing release Ministério Público de São Paulo: conviction release.

The prosecuting authority's own release, quoting the judgment's finding.

Related record

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