During the trial, held in the absence of the woman whose case was separated, the couple remained silent.
An inspector from the National Counterterrorism Unit of the Judicial Police testified that Portuguese authorities were alerted by a message from Brazil’s Federal Police indicating that a Brazilian woman planned to travel to Portugal to give birth, with suspicions that the child might be handed over to someone.
“There was allegedly a business involved,” added the inspector.
With the identification of the Brazilian woman and the Portuguese man who “had taken responsibility for receiving the woman,” inspectors traveled to the Leiria district to speak with the man, who is a defendant in the case, to understand if the document he signed “was merely to facilitate the woman’s arrival.”
Meanwhile, the woman gave birth at Leiria hospital, and the baby was registered by the mother and one of the defendants, who acknowledged not being the biological father, according to the inspector.
The indictment states that one of the defendants, aged 51, “in his plan to be the father of a male baby, engaged in conversations with several pregnant Brazilian women” through Facebook, Telegram, and WhatsApp groups.
In these conversations, the defendant “explained what was necessary for these women to come to Portugal,” where the birth would take place, so that “he could be listed as the father of a boy and live with the baby as if they were father and son.”
The Public Prosecutor’s Office reported that the defendant was assisted by a friend residing in Brazil, who “helped these women according to his instructions,” mainly financially.
In one such group named “surrogate mothers,” the defendant, in early 2022, met a pregnant woman and began WhatsApp conversations, both planning her trip to Portugal, where the baby would be born and live with the defendant and his partner.
To achieve this, the defendant, “often through bank transfers from the friend’s account,” covered all the pregnant woman’s expenses, including “passport and travel to other cities to quickly obtain the passport and interview needed for the trip to Portugal.”
In June 2022, the woman, about 35 weeks pregnant, traveled to Portugal where she stayed at the couple’s residence.
Upon her arrival, the defendant applied for the “certificate of right to medical assistance” under an agreement between the two countries, allowing Brazilian citizens to be treated in the National Health Service.
According to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the baby was born in July at Leiria hospital, and the defendant registered the child at the civil registry as his, “indicating the father’s name” and “paternal grandparents’ names” on the birth certificate.
The newborn was later placed in temporary foster care as part of a judicial process for the promotion and protection of minors.
The defendant covered “all the pregnant woman’s medical and hospital expenses, as well as the round-trip travel from Brazil to Lisbon and respective documentation, along with her stay and meals in Portugal for about two months.”
During this session, Adelino Granja, the lawyer defending one of the defendants, emphasized the nullity of the accusation, considering “the defendant’s involvement in uncovering the truth to be of manifest importance.”
However, the collective court ruled that the woman and a friend, who was a witness in this case, are defendants in a related case in Brazil and are therefore barred from testifying.
The final arguments are scheduled for January 14 at 14:00.
