PORTUGAL: Seven people charged with sexual abuse of children at a Lisbon orphanage went on trial yesterday, but most Portuguese doubt justice will be done in a case that has gripped the nation.
The six men and one women, including Mr Carlos Cruz, Portugal's best-known TV personality, face paedophilia charges involving children at the Casa Pia orphanage.
Mr Cruz, known as "Mr Television", left the Boa Hora courthouse at the end of the trial's first day to shouted insults from onlookers.
"Irritating," Mr Cruz's lawyer, Mr Antonio Serra Lopes, told SIC television when asked about the trial's start.
The initial day was largely devoted to procedural issues. "The attorneys had to ask for clarifications; the judge had to clear them up."
Defence attorneys questioned whether the judge who had prepared the case for trial had been properly chosen. The trial is set to resume on December 2nd at a larger courthouse.
The Casa Pia case involves more than 500 charges, about 800 witnesses and more than 20,000 pages of documents.
The paedophilia accusations, the suspects' prominence and heavy media coverage have riveted Portugal since allegations of sexual abuse stretching back decades surfaced in November 2002.
The charges centre on the main Lisbon orphanage run by the 224-year-old Casa Pia system. The state-supported orphanage and training system cares for 5,000 children or students.
A former Casa Pia driver, Mr Carlos Silvino, is alleged to have procured children for Mr Cruz and other defendants. He faces more than 300 charges.
Mr Cruz faces five charges of sexual abuse and one of a homosexual act with an adolescent. The other suspects include a former ambassador and a former Casa Pia deputy warden.
Mr Joao Correia, vice-president of the bar association, said heavy media coverage and breaches of judicial secrecy rules had damaged public confidence in the justice system.
A Marktest opinion poll carried by the newspaper Diario de Noticias and TSF radio yesterday showed that 64.3 per cent of Portuguese doubted that justice would be done in the case.