Fugitive Former Doctor Arrested by Police in Paraguay

08/20/2014 - 08h45

The former doctor Roger Abdelmassih, 70, sentenced to 278 years in prison for raping 37 women, was arrested on Tuesday (19) afternoon in Asunción, the Paraguayan capital.

Once known as the "doctor of the stars", for having been one of Brazil's leading specialists in assisted reproduction, Abdelmassih had been on the run since June 6th, 2011.

He was arrested after dropping off his children at school, in a joint operation involving both the Paraguayan police and the Brazilian Federal Police. At the time, he was accompanied by his wife, former public prosecutor Larissa Maria Sacco.

According to the federal marshal Marco Paulo Pimentel, Abdelmassih did not try to resist, though he became agitated when his rights were read out.

He did not use a disguise. The only differences in his appearance from the image in the police records were a baseball cap and the lack of a moustache. He is due to arrive in São Paulo by 1pm on Wednesday (20).

According to the prosecutor Luiz Henrique Dal Poz, police discovered Abdelmassih's hiding place during investigations into a money-laundering scheme which formed part of a "fugitives protection network".

The Public Prosecutor's Office would not identify those involved in this scheme, nor specify how many people are involved.

The investigation began three months ago following the discovery of some documents linked to Abdelmassih at a farm in Avaré, in the state of São Paulo. This was the beginning of the trail that would eventually lead the Federal Police to the ex-doctor's hiding place in Paraguay.

His lawyers, Márcio Thomaz Bastos and José Luis Oliveira Lima, would not comment on his arrest.

The allegations of sex offences were first revealed by Folha in January 2009. After the report was published, a number of other victims came forward.

Following an investigation, Abdelmassih was charged with 56 attacks on 39 different women. He was remanded in custody from August to December 2009, but he went to the Supreme Court and won the right to respond to the charges at liberty.

A number of the allegations were dropped due to lack of evidence, but in November 2010 Abdelmassih was found guilty of 48 attacks against 37 women, from 1995 to 2009, and received his sentence.

After having his sentence upheld in January 2011, Abdelmassih had his passport renewed and went on the run.

Translated by TOM GATEHOUSE

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