Searches underway at Ministry of Health and Santa Maria Hospital
Lacerda Sales, Portugal’s former secretary of state for health, has been named a defendant for his alleged role in the favouritism scandal involving two Brazilian twins.
Portugal’s PJ police launched an extensive search operation aimed this Thursday morning at the Ministry of Health, Santa Maria Hospital, and Luís Pinheiro, the former director of the hospital.
The searches are linked to the case of the two Portuguese-Brazilian twin children who allegedly benefitted from favouritism to receive a €4 million treatment using the drug Zolgensma.
According to reports in national press, Lacerda Sales has been named a defendant (arguido in Portuguese) for abuse of power after his own house in Leiria had been searched by PJ police on Monday.
The former secretary of state will be heard in Parliament on June 17.
The case dates back to 2020 and sparked a wave of controversy over the alleged influence exerted by the President of the Republic Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa and his son Nuno Rebelo de Sousa, as well as the interference of the former secretary of state so that the two twins living in Brazil, who acquired Portuguese nationality in “record time,” says Observador newspaper, would receive preferential treatment and be administered Zolgensma, at a total cost of €4 million, for spinal muscular atrophy.
An audit conducted by Santa Maria Hospital into the case concluded that it was Lacerda Sales who scheduled the consultation for the Portuguese-Brazilian twins, “thus reinforcing the suspicions of favoritism in the case,” Observador states.
The audit, which was opened on November 9 and concluded in December, also pointed out how the appointment was made: by phone, through the Department of Pediatrics Directorate. This is expected to be one of the main lines of investigation, as there may be suspicions of abuse of power by officials from the Ministry of Health and Santa Maria Hospital.
