BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — Brazil’s Supreme Court says it will try a senator on slave labor charges.
The Supreme Court says on its website that it will rule on the charges filed by the federal attorney general against Senator Joao Ribeiro, who allegedly kept more than 30 workers under slave-like conditions on his ranch in the Amazon jungle state of Para.
As a senator, Ribeiro can only be tried by the country’s highest court.
In 2004, Labor Ministry inspectors found 35 workers on Ribeiro’s ranch working 78 hours a week with no medical assistance, no days off and living in “subhuman” conditions.
The inspectors found that the workers racked up debts to the ranch for the food and equipment it sold to them. The owed money was deducted from their wages.
