The Chega leader allegedly forced her daughter to lie about suffering violence from her father and even used onions to make the child cry. She was also convicted of slander due to a false accusation against her father for sexual abuse of her daughter.
The Court of Appeal of Évora revoked the decision which took away from a national leader of Chega the exercise of parental responsibilities over her minor daughter, despite the judicial process describing episodes of abuse psychological problems and manipulation of the child during a custody dispute with her ex-husband.
The case dates back to the couple’s divorce in 2015. After the separation, the mother moved to the Algarve with her daughter, but in December 2021 the Setúbal Family and Minors Court changed the custody regime, establishing the child’s residence with the fatherin Setúbal. According to , the mother contested the decision, but it was later confirmed by the Appeals Court and the Supreme Court of Justice.
The most serious facts reported in the case occurred in November 2022. According to the decisions consulted, before the child returned to her father after a weekend with her mother in the Algarve, the girl was held by her maternal uncle while her grandmother opened her eyes and mother cut onion next to her face to provoke tears. The objective, according to the court, would be to make it appear that the child was crying about leaving his mother.
The father later took his daughter to hospital after the girl complained of vision difficulties. The child also reported the existence of “rituals” with candles and religious images, in which the mother, grandmother and a friend would ask the child not to return to his father and would wish the child’s stepmother to die and her sister.
In statements made for future memory in 2023, the child also stated that was pressured by her mother to lie about her fathersaying that he beat her and wanted to kill her. The child also reported episodes in which he was allegedly slapped when he misbehaved.
Despite the seriousness of the reports, the criminal case ended up archived due to lack of sufficient evidence of ill-treatment. Even so, the Setúbal Family and Minors Court decided to remove shared custody from the mother and prevent her from exercising parental responsibilities.
However, the Évora Relation has now decided to revoke this measure, considering that, although the behaviors described are “serious”, do not reveal “irreversible deterioration” of the relationship between mother and daughter.
The process also includes a history of legal conflict between the former couple. In 2015, the mother filed a complaint against the father for alleged sexual abuse of her daughter, then under two years old. The investigation was archived and the woman ended up convicted of slanderous accusation.
