Story By: Lisa-Maria Goertz, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Newsflash

A woman who was battered and tortured in a private prison set up by traffickers in a Brazilian favela when she challenged them over the rape of her daughter has been rescued along with her six children.

The brave woman had challenged the criminals over the sex attack to demand justice but instead was locked up with her kids in the Muquico slum, in the neighbourhood of Guadalupe, in the North Zone of the southeastern Brazilian municipality of Rio de Janeiro.

According to national newspaper Globo Extra, police officers rescued the woman and her six children from where they were being held on the 22nd September.

Reportedly, the woman had gone to the criminal leaders of the favela to complain that her daughter had been raped.

However, instead of helping her, she said that the men beat and tortured her and then kept her in a private prison.

The police officers reportedly received a report of the incidents and infiltrated the slum and rescued the woman and her children, all of whom are minors and the eldest of whom is six months pregnant.

The woman was taken to the Pedro II Hospital, where she was treated for her injuries.

According to military sources, as reported by Globo Extra, the traffickers were holding the woman whilst they waited for the approval of the gang leader, known as Grisalho, to execute her.

The woman and her children will leave Muquico with the help of authorities, and be moved to a new location and police have already helped the woman and her children to remove their belongings from the favela.

The State Secretariat for Victims of Rio will provide assistance to the family.

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