Portuguese police raided the Ministry of Health and the country’s largest hospital this Thursday (6). The operation is part of an investigation into whether Portuguese authorities violated laws by giving preferential access to high-cost medical treatment to Brazilian twin babies, whose family had sought help from the Portuguese president, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.
The attorney general’s office said in a statement that the possible commission of crimes of malfeasance, abuse of power and qualified fraud is being investigated. The searches also covered social security offices, other health service units and private residences.
The attorney general did not say who the suspected employees were. No connection with the Portuguese president was also discussed.
Millionaire treatment
The case happened between 2019 and 2020, when twins born in Brazil, aged 15 months at the time, were treated with the drug Zolgensma. The medicine is one of the most expensive in the world. They were treated at Santa Maria hospital, in Lisbon. It was not entirely clear how long the family had lived in the country. The treatment cost the Portuguese government around R$23 million.
Zolgensma is used to treat spinal muscular atrophy in babies and children under two years of age, a rare and serious hereditary disease.
The twins’ mother later said in an interview that after a doctor showed reluctance to provide the medicine, she used her “contacts” to speed up the process, and that one of them was the president’s daughter-in-law.
Rebelo de Sousa confirmed that his son contacted him about the need to treat the children, but denies having any involvement in the case.
The twins’ treatment became an issue due to public expense and concerns about whether other patients, who had requested the same treatment, were ignored.
Chega, a populist and anti-immigration party, criticized the conservative president and the Ministry of Health on the matter and created a parliamentary committee to analyze the case.
A hospital spokesman said it would cooperate with authorities, and a Ministry of Health spokesman confirmed the searches but declined to provide details.
Source: CNN Brasil
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