Sex scandal rocks politics
Updated: 30-May-2003
Thirty-eight-year-old Pedroso was interrogated for 12 hours in the TIC and was then placed in police custody, where he is now awaiting trial. The politician, who is also the acknowledged heir to the party leadership, is the first suspect allegedly involved in the paedophilia network to agree to be questioned of his own free will. The MP issued a statement following the news of his implication in the scandal, saying: “I am going through a terrible time. But I am fully aware of how over-used and discredited claims of innocence have become. However, I have a duty to say these words to my family, my friends and my Socialist Party comrades: I have never participated in any paedophile act or in any similar act.”
Pedroso’s implication in the paedophile scandal was exposed purely by chance. One of the youths, who alleges that he was raped by the ex-Minister, was aware that a politician had participated in several orgies in which the youngster alleges he was repeatedly sexually abused, but he was not aware of the politician’s name. The boy, who is now 21 years old, gave evidence on to the Departamento do Investigação e Acção Penal (DIAP) last January. He alleged that he was first raped by Carlos Silvino da Silva, known as ‘Bibi’, when he was six years old, and that he was subsequently forced to visit the house of Ambassador Jorge Ritto in Cascais. He later identified several houses in Cascais, Restelo and Colares, where he claims that horrific sexual attacks took place.
The youth, who has been identified as João and who is a former student of the Casa Pia children’s home, gave the DIAP a physical description of Paulo Pedroso. It is alleged that Pedroso committed sexual assaults on children during 1999 and 2000, at a time when he held the post of Secretary of State for Social Security, the Ministry in charge of Casa Pia. João identified Pedroso from a series of photographs. Later, it emerged that several credible witnesses, two of who are now 12 and 14 years old, have also accused Pedroso of sexual abuse.
After these allegations had been made, the next step of the investigation was to listen in on Pedroso’s telephone conversations. It has been revealed that two calls were considered relevant to the inquiry. Pedroso, speaking on the phone to the leader of the PS party, Ferro Rodrigues, asked him in code to maintain an ‘Alerta Amarelo’, a Yellow Alert. Pedroso also made reference to the articles that had been published in newspapers on April 4, regarding the former television presenter and suspected paedophile, Carlos Cruz.
Ferro Rodrigues has also had his name associated with the scandal. Weekly Newspaper Expresso reported that four young witnesses had told police, investigating the Casa Pia paedophile ring, that they saw the party leader at locations where the sexual abuse took place. The newspaper claims that none of the witnesses report being sexually abused by Ferro Rodrigues, but that, according to the police investigation, it has been alleged that Rodrigues watched adults having sex with minors. There also appears to have been a slight discrepancy in the dates when the party became aware of the allegations made against Pedroso. Pedroso claims that he knew ten days prior to his arrest, while Ferro Rodrigues alleges that the PS was informed 12 days before. The leader of the PS party confessed that he feared that someone was out to taint the credibility of the Portuguese justice system and had fabricated witnesses. “I know that there has been an obvious attempt to drag my name through the mud,” he said, “by associating me with the crimes of paedophilia in Casa Pia. This could be the last fight of my life and it’s going to be a tremendous fight against these false allegations.”
Speaking after an emergency PS party meeting, Ferro Rodrigues revealed that the same sources that had alerted the party to the allegations being made against Pedroso, had also advised him that there would be an attempt to discredit him. He told reporters that the allegations against Pedroso were part of an ‘organised set-up’ and that he continues to lend his support to Pedro Pedroso.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Durão Barroso expressed the need for composure, in a statement to the media. “We must place our trust in the justice system,” he said. “The Portuguese justice system is independent. The decisions that are made are made independently from other powers, including the power of the President, the government and the Republic Assembly.”
By Nina Lamy
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