BRASILIA – A politician from Rio de Janeiro, who was sentenced to 12 years in prison in 2016 after a judge found him guilty of submitting a 15-year-old girl to prostitution, rape and intimidating behavior, will now replace lawmaker Cristiane Brasil who was appointed by Brazil’s President Michel Temer as the new labor minister.
Nelson Nahim, now 60, was a regular client at a prostitution ring in which girls were kept against their will, drugged and forced to have sex, according to the prosecutor’s allegations.
He was accused of having sex with two 15-year-old girls and sentenced to 12 years in prison. However, he only served four months of his sentence after he successfully appealed at the Supreme Court.
Nahim, who is a member of President Temer’s Democratic Movement Party will take his seat in the legislative next month, after Congress returns from recess.
It is estimated that hundreds of thousands of children in Brazil are trapped in prostitution either by economic necessity, threats of violence by pimps and criminals, or drug addiction. Children in this condition of vulnerability can be as young as 10 years old.
