Imprisoned singer has baby

Trevi at the window of the Brasilia hospital in January

Singer Gloria Trevi, imprisoned in Brazil and facing extradition to Mexico on charges of abducting a minor, has given birth to a son.

The birth of the boy at Brasilia's north wing regional hospital adds a new twist to the singer's campaign to avoid deportation to her native country.

Mexico is attempting to extradite her to face charges of abduction and corrupting a minor, along with her manager Sergio Andrade.

Trevi had a 24-hour guard in hospital

The identity of the father of the child remains a mystery, although Trevi has said she was raped by a policeman while in custody.

Brazilian police have denied the charge.

The administrator of the hospital, Martinho Goncalves da Costa, is awaiting a legal ruling on whether DNA tests can be used to determine paternity.

Some 75 guards at the police jail where Trevi was previously held have volunteered to submit to DNA testing.

Ruling

But Trevi has declined to identify the father and has repeatedly refused to undergo DNA tests because of what she calls "security reasons".

Foreigners in Brazil, including the train robber Ronnie Biggs, have often avoided extradition by having a child there, because the child automatically becomes a Brazilian citizen.

Trevi rose to fame in the 1980s with provocative shows

The law has since changed, and on 29 November Justice Minister Aloysio Nunes Ferreira said that the birth of Trevi's child "in no way changes the ruling on extradition".

But one of Trevi's lawyers, Geraldo Magela, has said she still has a chance of beating extradition, thanks to a Brazilian law that prohibits the separation of a new-born child from its mother.

Trevi, her manager Sergio Andrade and choreographer Maria Raquenel Portillo were charged in Mexico with corrupting a 17-year-old girl.

They were arrested in Rio de Janeiro in January 2000, and later transferred to a federal police jail in Brasilia and then to the Papuda penitentiary.