Former Catholic priest sentenced to 24 years in prison for underage rape case in Brazil

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SAO PAULO (AP) — A Brazilian court sentenced former priest Bernardino Batista dos Santos to 24 years and nine months in prison for the rape of an underage person, a document obtained by The Associated Press on Thursday showed.

The ruling was issued earlier this week, though the case remains sealed.

In a 22-page document, the court in the state of Minas Gerais also sentenced the 78-year-old dos Santos to pay 30,000 Brazilian reais in damages ($5,570) to the person.

Dos Santos' lawyer, Leonardo Diniz, said in a short statement he is shocked by the court's decision and will appeal it.

The Archdiocese of Belo Horizonte removed dos Santos from his position in the neighboring city of Contagem in 2021 following dozens of complaints going back to 1975. His conviction, though, is based on a single case in 2016, after Brazil changed its laws on statutes of limitation in similar cases.

The former priest was first arrested in October 2024, but was later moved to house arrest with electronic ankle monitoring, according to Minas Gerais authorities.

Lawyer Ana Carolina Oliveira, who works for more than 60 people allegedly raped by dos Santos, said in a statement that “the court's decision recognizes the seriousness of the actions committed, the particular vulnerability of the underage victim, and the profound impact of the violations.”

"No social, institutional, or religious position can serve as a shield for impunity in crimes of this nature,” Oliveira said.

A Minas Gerais state police investigation, to which the AP also had access, showed the family of the underage person accused dos Santos of rape during a weekend at a farm he had in the city of Tiros. At the time, the former priest was the director of a kindergarten in Belo Horizonte.

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