Incest cases rock Colombia and Italy

Hurriyet Daily News with wires

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A Colombian man accused of sexually abusing his daughter from a young age and fathering eight children with her was arrested Saturday, reported Reuters news agency. In Italy, police have arrested a man for forcing his daughter to have sex with him for 25 years, Deputy Prosecutor Pietro Forno of the northern city of Turin told Agence France-Presse late Friday.

Arcebio Alvarez, 58, was led away in handcuffs by agents from Colombia's attorney general's office after his daughter told police that he had abused her since she was a young girl.

Alba Nidia Alvarez, 35, from the central town of Mariquita, said an evangelical Christian pastor had convinced her to come forward about the alleged abuse. "I took this decision according to the will of God, thanks to a pastor who prayed for me many times," she said in an interview with the daily newspaper El Tiempo. "That is what gave me the strength."

Alba Nidia's mother died when she was five, leaving her under the care of her father, who has been branded "the monster of Mariquita" by the local press. The eight children are between the ages of 1 and 19 and have been placed under state care.

Meanwhile, Italian news report said Saturday that the 64-year-old Italian junk dealer had allegedly raped his daughter, now 34, regularly since she was nine years old. He was arrested a few days ago, while his son, 41, has been in police custody since last month accused of raping his four daughters, Deputy Prosecutor Forno said.

Some children defend father

Both the father and the son have strongly denied the allegations against them, the ANSA news agency reported. Some of the siblings were also insisting their father was innocent. Turin newspaper La Stampa quoted several family members, including the elder man's wife and some adult daughters and sons as defending the father and blaming the son for all the abuse. Two of the adult children said in interviews on Italy's Sky TG24 TV that they believed their father was innocent but that their brother had committed some kind of abuse, without saying exactly what kind.

The investigation began last October, when Laura lodged a complaint against her brother, accusing him of holding her prisoner and raping her for two weeks after she fled to his home following an argument with their father. The Turin case immediately drew comparisons in Italian and foreign media to that of Josef Fritzl, the Austrian man recently convicted of holding his daughter captive for 24 years in the basement of his house and fathering her seven children. But authorities said the victims in the Turin case were not held captive.