Hissam Hussein Dehaini: Mayor under fire for marrying 6th wife, 16, after naming her mom to top government post
PARANA, BRAZIL: A mayor of Brazil reportedly married a 16-year-old girl just days after appointing her mother to a top post in the city government. 65-year-old Aracauria Mayor Hissam Hussein Dehaini came under fire after it was revealed that he married beauty queen Kauane Rode Dehaini on April 15, just four days after she turned 16. Kauane is reportedly the mayor's sixth wife.
Dehaini has been married six times and is a father to as many as 16 children. He tied the knot in 1980 for the first time. Dehaini named Kauane's mother, Marilene Rode, as the city’s secretary of Culture and Tourism days before the marriage. She had previously served as the city’s director of the Department of Education. With the new position, she was given a $1,500 raise.
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Kauane's aunt, Elizangela Rode, has been working as the city’s planning secretary since October 2022. Kauane attends high school at a civic-military school in the city, which the mayor oversees, Daily Star cited Vogue in Brazil as reporting.
Parana state prosecutors' investigation
Following his marriage to Kauane, Paraná state prosecutors began looking into whether Dehaini used his influence to hire family members to government positions. Consequently, Dehaini removed Marilene and Elizangela from their roles on Tuesday, April 25. The city defended Marilene's hiring in a statement, saying "that the servant in question meets the necessary conditions for the exercise of the position, since she has 26 years of experience in the public service," according to Daily Mail.
Marilene, who had been employed by Aracauría since August 9, 2021, was named advisor to the municipal secretary at the time, according to Brazilian news outlet G1. She was later promoted to become Dehaini's executive assistant. She was named director of the Aracauría Department of Education in January last year.
Other times Hissam Hussein Dehaini was under fire
This is not the first time Dehaini came under fire for his actions. During his first term in office, his hiring practices were questioned when he reportedly appointed family members of his then wife to government gigs. The Civil Society Organization of Public Interest investigated him in 2019, after he named several family members to city government roles. Among those he named were his then wife and two daughters.
However, he was eventually cleared of all wrongdoings. In November 2000, the mayor was reportedly arrested in a drug trafficking investigation. He was accused of protecting drug traffickers. He allegedly also bribed police officers for protection. Despite the investigation, he was not convicted on any of the charges.
