Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1995. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
The Associated Press - 29 Sep 1995
Almost four years after hemophiliacs lodged a complaint with the state's attorney, Judge Carlos Lobo decided to indict Leonor Beleza, 45, health minister in the Social Democratic government from 1985 to 1990.
Beleza's mother, Maria dos Prazeres, who was secretary general at the Health Ministry, and eight other officials were also indicted Friday. Defense officials said they would appeal.
If convicted, they could be sentenced to up to 7 1/2 years in prison.
In 1985, a tainted batch of globulin known as Factor VIII was imported in Portugal from the Austrian laboratory Plasmapharm. Factor VIII is the substance necessary for blood to clot.
The state prosecutor says Beleza knew the Austrian health ministry had detected the HIV virus in some blood products from that laboratory, but she did nothing to remove potentially infected Factor VIII from Portugal's hospitals.
Beleza had been "especially alerted" that year by Portuguese and foreign experts of the danger for hemophiliacs, according to the state prosecutor's report.
The Los Angeles-based World Hemophilia Center published a report saying Portugal, a country of 10 million, had the most AIDS-infected hemophiliacs in Europe and the third highest number in the world.
Authorities do not know how many were infected with the tainted blood, but 59 of the 126 hemophiliacs who brought the case have already died.
Families of those who died gathered outside the court building.
"You should be under the ground, like my son," the mother of a 17-year-old boy who died in 1994 cried out when Beleza entered court.
Police had to restrain some onlookers from attacking the former minister.
Copyright 1995/The Associated Press. Reproduced with permission. Reproduction of this article (other than one copy for personal reference) must be cleared through the Permissions Desk, The Associated Press, 50 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10020.
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