Formal charges filed against main suspects in Portugal's paedophilia probe

Lusa news agency

The Public Prosecutor's Office on Monday [29 December] filed formal charges against 10 of the 13 suspects in the probe into an alleged paedophilia scandal at Lisbon's Casa Pia [Portugal's main state-run children's home], Lusa has learnt from a source close to the investigations.

The 10 suspects now formally charged are: [TV anchorman] Carlos Cruz, [TV humorist and presenter] Herman Jose, [MP and former Socialist employment minister] Paulo Pedroso, [former employee of Casa Pia] Carlos Silvino (known as "Bibi"), [lawyer] Hugo Marcal, [former diplomat] Jorge Ritto, Ferreira Diniz, [former Casa Pia governor] Manuel Abrantes, Francisco Alves and Gertrudes Nunes. [Passage omitted]

The deadline for the filing of charges was 31 January 2004.

[Editor's note: State radio RDP1 reported at 1400 gmt on Monday that the Public Prosecutor's Office has indicted Manuel Abrantes on eight counts of sexual abuse of minors and 80 counts of sexual abuse of teenagers, among other charges, and Carlos Silvino on over 1,000 counts of sexual abuse of minors]