Alleged victims in Portugal's sex abuse scandal want all suspects to stand trial

Lusa news agency

The lawyer representing the alleged victims of sex abuse crimes at Casa Pia home [Portugal's largest state-run institution for vulnerable children] has said he will appeal the decision to exempt three of the 10 people formally investigated from standing trial, news agency Lusa reported on Monday [31 May].

Antonio Pinto Pereira made this announcement outside Lisbon's Criminal Court this afternoon [where Judge Ana Teixeira e Silva read the names of the people who will stand trial on charges of sexual abuse of minors and the facilitation of prostitution and corruption of minors]. [Passage omitted]

A few minutes earlier, Catalina Pestana, the woman appointed to head the children's home [following the dismissal of the institution's governor after the first allegations surfaced, in November 2002], admitted to journalists that her lawyers were considering an appeal.

[Editor's note: Portuguese state TV RPTINT also reported on Monday, 31 May, that the lawyers representing one of the people exempted from standing trial - a former Socialist minister and MP who was kept under preventive custody for several months - has announced his intention to sue for damages]