Seven people have been detained by police after a 35-year-old woman was allegedly kidnapped and tortured during an ordeal lasting ten days.

"/> Seven people have been detained by police after a 35-year-old woman was allegedly kidnapped and tortured during an ordeal lasting ten days.

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TORTURE

Woman kidnapped and tortured for ten days

Seven people have been detained by police after a 35-year-old woman was allegedly kidnapped and tortured during an ordeal lasting ten days.

Described as “horror behind closed doors” by the local police chief, the events took place in the village of Saint-Doulchard close to the town of Bourges in the Centre region of the country. 

The woman was finally freed on August 11th after allegedly being beaten, raped and brandished with obscene tattoos and cigarette burns. It is believed that some of the woman’s experiences were also filmed by her attackers.

The seven people being questioned include two men, one of whom is believed to be the woman’s boyfriend, and two other women all aged from 29 to 33. The group also included three teenagers, two boys aged 14 and 16 and a 14-year-old girl.

Local newspaper Le Berry Republicain reported that the torture started after the woman was believed to have cheated on her boyfriend. 

“It was horror behind closed doors,” said Bruno Meunier, a police chief leading the investigation. The woman “was huddled up on a straw mattress that you wouldn’t even give to an animal. Her face was all swollen up. In twenty years, I’ve never seen anything like it.”

“I didn’t think this type of place existed in Saint-Doulchard. There were six dogs, six cats, rabbits and hamsters in the house that roamed around and did their business everywhere.”

The seven have admitted to what happened but deny the woman was kidnapped, prosecutors said. They are being held for further questioning. The woman herself is still in hospital recovering from her injuries.

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CENTRE

Norway’s Centre Party: ‘The British have a better deal than the EEA’

Norway's Centre Party has called the UK's trade deal with the European Union "a better agreement" than the one Norway has as a member of the European Economic Area.

Norway's Centre Party: 'The British have a better deal than the EEA'
Marit Arnstad (above) argues that the UK deal is superior to EEA membership. Photo: Centre Party/Flickr
Marit Arnstad, parliamentary leader of the Centre Party, said in an interview with the Klassekampen newspaper on Tuesday that the UK had shown Norway could get a better deal than what it currently has as a member of the European Economic Area (EEA). 
 
“The UK has got a deal with gives them more freedom and more independence,” she said. 
 
“From my point of view, the British have a better agreement than the EEA. They gain access to the internal market and common trade, which is desirable, but they do not have to be part of the dynamic regulatory development that places strong limits on individual countries' national policies.”  
 
The former agrarian party last month overtook the Norwegian Labour and Conservative parties, the traditional leading parties of left and right, in polling ahead of next September's general election, sending a political shockwave through the country. 
 
 
Ms Arnstad said that after seeing the UK's success, her party would renew its calls for a public inquiry into possible changes to EEA membership.  
 
“I think it highlights the need to study alternatives to the EEA,” she said. “The most difficult thing for Norway is that we are constrained in areas of national politics, and that is happening in more and more areas. The British have now taken back these powers, and that is extremely interesting.” 
 
The Centre Party's call for an inquiry is backed by the Socialist Left Party, with Heming Olaussen, head of the party's EEA committee, telling Klassekampen that the UK's deal was superior.  
 
“The British have been released from the European Court of Justice. They are no longer subject to EU supremacy and must not accept any EU legislation in the future as we have to,” he said. 
 
“This agreement… safeguards national sovereignty in a better way than the EEA does for us.” 
 
Even after the Centre Party's recent surge in the polls, however, eurosceptic parties in Norway still lack a parliamentary majority. 
 
Both Labour and the Conservatives are historically pro-EU, and Norway's Prime Minister Erna Solberg argued earlier this month that the UK's Brexit struggles should serve as a warning to Norwegian eurosceptics. 
 
“Political parties in Norway that think it is a good idea to leave the EEA because we can negotiate new, better agreements should look more closely across the North Sea,” she said. 
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