THREE CONVICTED IN BRUTAL GANG RAPE IN BRAZIL AGAINST AMERICAN WOMAN THAT ATTRACTED GLOBAL ATTENTION

Three van operators have been convicted in a gang rape against an American woman aboard Brazilian mass transit in a case that attracted global attention.
Wallace Aparecido Souza Silva, 21, and Jonathan Foudakis de Souza, 20, were each sentenced by Judge Guilherme Schilling to 49 years and three months in prison on charges of rape, robbery and extortion. Carlos Armando Costa dos Santos, age not given, received 21 years and seven months in prison. A minor also detained in the case has not yet been tried.

A court document on the decision said the attacks on the woman "were laced with sadism and complete disdain for the victim," the Associated Press reported.

The six-hour abduction and attack took place on March 30 when the victim and her boyfriend caught a public van from Rio's Copacabana neighborhood to a nightlife area of Lapa.

The men operating the van robbed passengers and forced everyone off but the woman and her boyfriend. After beating up the boyfriend with a tire iron, they raped the woman repeatedly as the van stayed on the road.

The attackers later went on a shopping spree with the couple's credit cards and forced the rape victim to return to the apartment where she was staying in Brazil to get another card, a police officer told The Guardian.

Anger swelled around the globe after it was made public that the gang was wanted in other unsolved rape cases.