Former PSD deputy Ana Serralha was sentenced to two years in prison, with a suspended sentence, for the crime of ill-treating the elderly at the Porto Moniz home. The sentence is suspended on condition that the defendant pays one thousand euros to the Princess D. Amelia Foundation within a year. The trial ruling was announced this afternoon, at the Funchal court (Edifício 2000).
The mistreatment at the institution occurred between 2010 and 2018. Four employees of the institution were convicted in a trial that ended on May 6, 2022. The former director, who was once a PSD deputy and who was also accused, did not was judged, as it was partly uncertain. She then informed the court that she was living in England and her trial began on May 10 last year. The defendant, who followed the hearings via videoconference, denied the court responsibility for the bad practices recorded at the institution.
Diário Notícias was prevented, by order of judge Joana Dias, from revealing the identity of the defendant. However, at the end of the reading of the ruling, his lawyer, Duarte Fernandes, mentioned the defendant’s name in the statements he made to the media, having highlighted that his client is innocent, that there are no witnesses who saw her mistreating the institution’s users and expressing their intention to appeal today’s decision.