// Paulo Abreu dos Santos / LinkedIn; Mário Cruz / Lusa
Paulo Abreu dos Santos, former deputy to former Minister of Justice Catarina Sarmento e Castro.
The former deputy of the former Minister of Justice is said to have become in debt due to the large donations he made to the Orixás religious sect. The PJ also found videos of naked men filmed without their knowledge with hidden cameras in locker rooms.
The lawyer and former assistant to the former Minister of Justice Catarina Sarmento e Castro has been in preventive detention since Saturday, indicted for more than 500 crimes of pornography of minors and two crimes of sexual abuse of children. The suspect, Paulo Abreu dos Santosaged 38, is also an assistant professor at the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon.
According to the investigation by the Judiciary Police (PJ), the defendant is still suspected of having installed hidden cameras in changing rooms and bathrooms, with the aim of capturing images of naked adult men, without the knowledge or consent of the victims. Several videos of this type were found on external disks seized from his residence, in Santa Marta do Pinhal, Corroios. However, because it was a crime of defilement of private life and there were no formal complaints from the victims, the Public Prosecutor’s Office did not proceed with the indictment.
In one of the videos analyzed, the lawyer himself appears installing image capture devices in private spaces. The PJ also found numerous child pornography files on the suspect’s equipment. According to the investigation, Paulo Abreu dos Santos was an admitted drug user and was threatened by his then partner, who considered reporting him to the authorities, according to the .
The law firm where the suspect worked stated that it was “shocked and appalled”, stressing that the alleged events occurred after his departure.
It further states that the defendant was in financial difficulties due to his large donations to a religious cult of African origin, the “Orixás – Ilê Axé Omô Oxum”, which is very popular in Brazil. The lawyer will have a debt of more than 5000 euros for not paying the condominium and the situation has generated conflicts with his mother and brother.
The newspaper states that these donations earned Paulo Abreu dos Santos a “top position in the ‘Orixás’” and the nickname ‘Papi’. The arrow has already denied the existence of “any institutional, organizational or functional relationship” with the suspicions surrounding the lawyer and expressed willingness to collaborate with the authorities.
The suspect’s mother said she believed that her son was the victim of a “snare”, but refused to make a formal statement, claiming she was going through a difficult time.
The investigation began in April 2024, after a Homeland Security Investigation reportUnited States federal agency. One of the IP addresses initially flagged belonged to the Ministry of Justice, where the defendant worked between September 2022 and September 2023, and another to his residence.
Given the dangers of continued criminal activity, disruption of public order and concealment of evidence, the criminal investigation judge ordered preventive detention, a measure promoted by the Public Prosecutor’s Office. The defense asked for a non-custodial alternative of liberty or house arrest with an electronic bracelet, but the request was rejected. The defendant is currently in the Carregueira Prison, intended for inmates convicted of sexual crimes.
