LIMA, PERU — A 22-year-old Peruvian woman died of an infection caused by a rusty padlock on the chastity belt that her jealous husband forced her to wear while he was away on business trips, police said yesterday.

Police said that Rosa Esquen Vela died three days ago from septicemic poisoning after the rusty lock on the tight leather chastity belt dug into her fiesh and caused a fatal infection.

Vela made the belt out of coarse rawhide and always locked it, taking the key on business trips.

A government prosecutor said that her husband, Dionicio Vela, would spend at least five years in jail in the death and for reviving the medieval practice of ensuring his wife's sexual fidelity by keeping her under lock and key. He did not say exactly what charges Vela would face.

Police said Vela had made the chastity belt himself out of thick, coarse rawhide and always locked the padlock and took the key when business trips took him away from his village in Peru's rugged jungle.

They said the toxic infection set in when Vela was delayed on his most recent trip and failed to return before his wife died.