Buenos Aires, Feb 6 (NA) – Agostina Páez, the 29-year-old Argentine lawyer accused of making racist gestures in Brazil, has been detained at a police station in Rio de Janeiro. The woman, whose passport was withheld and who was fitted with an electronic ankle bracelet, had already been notified of her legal situation. She is accused of making gestures at a group of Brazilians in a bar in Ipanema on January 14. The justice system of the neighboring country had approved the request from the Public Prosecutor's Office to order preventive detention due to the possible risk of flight and intimidation of witnesses, and she could be transferred in the coming hours to the Bangu Penitentiary Complex. The young woman, who is prohibited from leaving Brazil, is charged with racial insult, a crime that carries a sentence of two to five years in prison. In a video released this Thursday, Páez stated that “all her rights are being violated,” considering that at all times she showed her willingness to cooperate with the Brazilian authorities, but at the same time she warned that she is “dead scared.” “I need help. I hope everything gets cleared up,” she added. Although the lawyer did not explicitly say so, her reaction is said to have been in response to a series of obscene taunts from a group of men who were in the bar.
