The lawyer who served as assistant to the former Minister of Justice Catarina Sarmento e Castro was accused by the Public Prosecutor’s Office of 7,986 sexual crimes related to children, the majority (7,095) for possession and sharing of images and videos of abuse and pornography of minors, reports the CNN Portugalwho had access to the Lisbon DIAP indictment.
According to the indictment, in 2021, Paulo Abreu dos Santos began using the messaging services Viber, Signal and Telegram to access child pornography content, with activity being recorded in 13 groups, which reported him to the US authorities in 2024.
In Portugal, the Judiciary Police began investigating the lawyer, which resulted in searches of Paulo Abreu dos Santos’ house, in the Corroios area, Seixal, with the arrest was carried out in the actafter more than eight thousand pieces of pornography involving minors were found in his residence.
The analysis of the videos, adds CNN Portugal, concluded that the overwhelming majority of victims are foreigners, but there is also a case of abuse of a 10-year-old Portuguese boy, which was filmed by Abreu dos Santos. This resulted in 889 charges for the images captured and two charges of sexual abuse.
Paulo Abreu dos Santos, 39 years old, is in preventive detention since Decemberafter the investigating judge has verified most of the dangers that may justify the application of the most serious coercive measure: the fear of continuing criminal activity, of hiding evidence and seriously disturbing public order and tranquility.
In April, Abreu dos Santos was denied the possibility of awaiting trial under house arrest. “The danger of continued criminal activity is pressing,” concluded the judgesas stated in the ruling, considering preventive detention a measure of coercion “proportional to the gravity of the criminal conduct” of the defendant and because “there is no other measure of coercion that allows the danger of continuation of criminal activity to be prevented”.
