Instagram model claims cops 'forced her to show genitals because they thought she was trans'

Liziane Gutierrez, from Brazil, says she spent a month in prison for filming a policeman in Marrakesh, Morocco - and was forced to undergo a genital inspection before starting her term

A bikini model says she was accused of being transgender and forced to show officers her genitals after being arrested in Morocco.

Liziane Gutierrez, who sued rapper Chris Brown after an altercation at a party in Las Vegas, said she spent a month in jail for filming a policeman in Marrakesh. But before being admitted to the women’s prison the Brazilian influencer, who has 1.5 million followers on Instagram, said she was forced to undergo a genital inspection to prove she's not transgender.

Speaking from Italy after her release from prison, she said: “The jail was a nightmare when I first got there. They thought I was a transsexual, so I had to open my legs in front of two women and two men. I never felt so humiliated in my life. And they were looking up inside me like a doctor or whatever, and I was just crying.”

She added: “After that, they think, ‘oh, okay, she is actually a woman.’ So they put me in this prison. If I was trans, I would probably have been in the male prison.” Liziane said her nightmare began when her bag was swiped outside her hotel in Marrakesh on October 30, with her phone and her husband’s work phone inside.

But her husband still had his personal phone, so the couple tried to track their stolen devices. The next day, a location pinged for one of the stolen phones, and they rushed to the nearest policeman to urge him to act. She continued: “We saw these guys with the police car near the hotel and we went to contact them.

“And we don't speak Arabic, we don't speak French, so I was trying to communicate in English and with Google Translate. They were just ignoring us. So I grabbed the phone and I started to record them, to show to people: if you're a tourist in Marrakesh and you need police, they're just going to ignore you. When I did that, they handcuffed me and my husband, and they threw us in a police car and took us to the police station.”

The Brazilian embassy confirmed Liziane’s arrest to Leo Dias, a celebrity news website in her home country. Her husband, Toni, was released after one night, after agreeing to hand over the password to his phone, which was used to record the officers.
But the influencer’s ordeal was just beginning.

She was soon moved to a holding facility which she called “complete hell”, adding: “In the little room, it was supposed to be like no more than 10 girls, and it was 20 girls. There were bugs everywhere, flies everywhere. There was no ventilation, but people were smoking inside that room. Some people stayed there for like a week. How? I have no clue.”

A day and a half later, she was transferred to a large prison where she would remain until a month after her arrest. She said: “It was supposed to be like 10 people and it was like 20 again. We had to sleep on the floor. The bathroom was just like a hole in the floor. There is food just like once a day, and they serve bread. And the temperature goes from really hot to really cold.”

For Liziane, it was her most awful travel experience – even above her journeys to North Korea and war-torn Ukraine. She said: “I know that I'm not a person that is easy to deal with. But at that time, I did nothing wrong. I was just trying to get help.
“I was in a country that didn’t speak good English, I don't know nobody there but my husband, so I was just trying to look for help.”

She said: “I would rather go to North Korea 10 times again than come back to Morocco. I was more respected in North Korea than in Morocco.” The Moroccan authorities have been contacted for comment.

Ms Gutierrez was said to have received around $70,000 (£50,000) in compensation after alleging in 2016 that a member of Brown’s entourage assaulted her at a luxury party hosted by the musician. She is said to have received around $70,000 in compensation after claiming Brown or a member of his crew assaulted her while confiscating her cell phone at a luxury party held by the R&B star.

At the time, TMZ reported the incident occurred after Brown caught her taking his photo at the bash at the Palms Hotel and Casino on December 31, 2015. The Grammy award winning artist denied the allegations but reached an agreement after Gutierrez stepped up her claim by suing for defamation when Brown posted a video in which he said she was "too ugly" to have been invited to his party.