Trevi, who is seven months pregnant, has been held in Brazilian jails since she was
                 arrested 19 months ago at the request of Mexican police, who want her extradited
                 on charges of corrupting a minor.

                 Inaldo Leitao, president of the Congressional Commission on Constitution and
                 Justice, told reporters he visited Trevi to learn what happened to her during her stay
                 in federal prisons.

                 "Gloria Trevi told us about a series of abuses she suffered in Brasilia's federal jails
                 and asked for the intervention of human rights groups to protect her," Leitao said.

                 Trevi told the congressmen she had been violated on repeated occasions by federal
                 agents in the prison's administrative offices.

                 Leitao called the charges "very serious" and called for a congressional investigation
                 into the entire penal system.

                 "She didn't have any way to resist the harassment of people who, by law, are
                 obliged to protect her and the other prisoners," Leitao said.

                 The congressional visit coincides with an investigation being conducted by the
                 public prosecutor's office and Brazilian Bar Association also looking into how Trevi
                 got pregnant in jail.

                 Trevi told Brazil's Supreme Court, which handles extradition cases, she had been
                 raped in prison but, until now, had declined to disclose the identity of the assailant.

                 Trevi also declined to submit the fetus to a DNA test, which could determine who
                 fathered the child expected in January.

                 Federal police claim Trevi artificially inseminated herself while in prison in an
                 attempt to stay in the country.

                 In the past, foreigners avoided extradition by having a child in Brazil because the
                 child was a Brazilian citizen. But the law has changed, and Trevi can be extradited
                 even if her child is born in Brazil.

                 The singer apparently got pregnant in May, precisely when there was an uprising at
                 the federal police jail in Brasilia where she was initially detained.

                 She since has been transferred to another facility in the same city.

                 Trevi, her man ager Sergio Andrade and choreographer Maria Raquenel Portillo
                 have been in Brazilian jails since they were arrested in January 2000 after fleeing
                 Mexico.

                 Prosecutors in Mexico's Chihuahua state have accused the three of corrupting a
                 17-year-old girl whose parents turned her over to Andrade's care at age 12 for
                 musical training. The girl abandoned a baby in Spain in 1998, saying Andrade was
                 the father.

                 In December, Brazil's Supreme Court approved Mexico's request for extradition,
                 and in March the government rejected her request for political asylum.

                 She then appealed to Brazil's National Council on Refugees, which could
                 recommend that she be given asylum. The Supreme Court is not bound by the
                 council's recommendation.

                  Copyright 2001 The Associated Press.