Rome, Nov 23 (IANS/AKI) Italian authorities would deport 10 Brazilian transsexuals who were reportedly friends of Brenda, the prostitute at the centre of a sex and drugs scandal found dead in Rome Friday, officials said.
They are expected to be deported within a week to Brazil.

“They are people who engage in prostitution and are thus checked just like any other prostitutes,” said Maurizio Improta, head of the immigration office.

On Friday, the transsexuals said they feared for their lives after the death of the Brazilian prostitute Brenda, who was found dead after a fire broke out at her apartment in northern Rome early Friday.

She made headlines after allegedly having more than one sexual encounter with the former governor of the Lazio region Piero Marrazzo in an extortion, sex and drugs scandal, which led to the governor’s resignation in October.

One of the transsexual prostitutes, Natalie, has been granted a permit of stay because she is considered a witness in the case involving Marrazzo, who resigned as governor, when news of his relationship with Brenda and Natalie broke in October.

Rome’s public prosecutor said that the case would be investigated as a homicide after an autopsy showed that Brenda had suffocated from the smoke during the fire.

–IANS/AKI

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