Prosecution holds Lar do Comércio responsible for 18 deaths caused by covid-19 | Justice

The Public Prosecutor’s Office accused O Lar do Comércio, in Matosinhos, as well as the then president of the institution and a former director of services, of the crime of spreading disease, aggravated by the result, for not having taken the necessary measures to contain the spread of covid-19, “despite being successively warned by health entities, in inspections carried out at the home”, reads a note from the Porto Regional Attorney General’s Office released this Monday.

This is the second indictment of these three defendants, who, in March 2024, were convicts for 18 crimes of ill-treatment. The former president of the institution and the former director of services were each sentenced in the first instance to a sentence of six years and six months in prison, while the home was forced to pay a fine of 510 thousand euros. The sentences were reduced as part of an appeal decided by the Porto Court of Appeal, which decreed a suspended prison sentence for the two former caretakers of the home and a fine of 90 thousand euros for the institution. At this time, the outcome of an appeal to the Constitutional Court is still awaited.

In the new indictment, the Public Prosecutor’s Office considers the three defendants responsible for, between April 7 and May 13, 2020 — the date on which the removal of users began, followed by decontamination of the institution —, 109 users of the home contracted covid-19, of which 18 died as a direct consequence of the disease, with another three suffering serious injuries to their physical integrity. The note was released this Monday, but indicates that the indictment order dates back to March 31st.

Contacted by PÚBLICO, the lawyer representing O Lar do Comércio, Nuno Pimenta, insists that the institution is very different. “Once again, the home will be forced to answer for acts that do not correspond to its current image, nor to its current actions towards its users and all those under its responsibility”, stated the defender.

According to the indictment, “the defendants, as representatives of the home and also acting in its interest, between March and May 2020, with the emergence and spread of the pandemic caused by Covid-19, despite being successively warned by health authorities, in inspections carried out at the home, for the lack of conditions in the home that facilitated the spread of the disease, and that containment measures were required, chose not to implement them and issued orders/instructions contrary to these measures, increasing the spread of the disease among home users and employees”, states the note.

The statement also sets out some of the measures that should have been taken: segregation of positive and negative users, correct use and exchange of personal protective equipment, preventing positive users from wandering, managing clean/dirty circuits, reinforcing hygiene and active surveillance.