Documentary record Bound by Fear
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Conviction Afro-Brazilian religious settings Três de Maio, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil · 2025

Brazil: pai de santo sentenced to 259 years for rapes framed as a 'purification process'

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

pai de santo

Organization

No organization assigned

Spiritual nexus

The prosecution's own framing is that manipulated religious trust enabled the harm: the purification doctrine bound both family and non-family victims, which distinguishes this from purely domestic cases — the ritual claim, not the household, is what made refusal impossible for girls across his circle.

  • Ritual, oath, or initiation
  • Threatened spiritual consequence

Evidence structure

Proceedings

  1. 2025-01-01 · conviction and sentence

    2ª Vara Judicial de Três de Maio, Rio Grande do Sul; Ministério Público do RS. A pai de santo was sentenced to 259 years in closed regime for raping seven girls under 14 between 2009 and 2024 — including stepdaughters, a granddaughter, and other girls within his religious circle — telling them the rapes were part of a 'processo de purificação' and demanding secrecy under threat.

Documented coercion mechanisms

  • rapes presented as a required 'purification process'
  • secrecy demanded under threat
  • religious trust of families in his circle

Primary record

Sources

official prosecuting authority conviction release Ministério Público do Rio Grande do Sul, release no. 61968 (2025).

The state prosecution service's release on the conviction, the 259-year sentence, and the purification pretext.

Related record

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